CIHM 
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Series 
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ICMH 

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microfiches 
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Canadian  Inatituta  lof  Hiitorlcal  Microrapraductiona  /  Inatitut  Canadian  da  microraproductiona  hiatoriquaa 


1995 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes  /  Notes  technique  et  bibliographiques 


The  Institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best  original 
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may  be  bibliographically  unique,  which  may  alter  any  of 
the  images  in  the  reproduction,  or  which  may 
significantly  change  the  usual  method  of  filming  are 
checked  below. 


n 

n 

D 

D 
D 
D 

D 

D 

D 

D 


D 


Coloured  covers  / 
Couverture  de  couleur 

Covers  damaged/ 
Couverture  endommagee 

Covers  restored  and/or  laminated  / 
Couverture  restauree  et/ou  peiiicuiee 

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within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these  tiave 
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pages  blanches  ajouttes  lors  d'une  restauration 
appaiaissent  dans  le  texte,  mais,  kxsque  cela  etait 
possible,  ces  pages  n'ont  pas  tH  Nmees. 


L'Institut  a  microfilm^  le  meilleur  examplaire  qu'il  lui  a 
6t6  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details  de  cet  exem- 
plaire  qui  sont  peut-6tre  uniques  du  point  de  vue  bibli- 
ographkque,  qui  peuvent  modifier  une  image  reproduite, 
ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une  modifications  dans  la  m6th- 
ode  normale  de  filmage  sont  indkqu6s  ci-dessous. 


n 

D 

D 

D 
Q 
D 

D 

D 


D 


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image  possible. 

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best  possible  Image  /  Les  pages  s'opposant 
ayant  des  colorations  variables  ou  des  decol- 
orations sont  fllmees  deux  fois  afin  d'obtenir  la 
meilleur  image  possible. 


I     I      /UdHional  comments/ 

I — I      Commentairessuppiementaites: 


This  ittm  ii  filmed  st  ttw  rsduction  ratio  ducked  below/ 

Ct  documani  tst  f  ilmi  w  taux  dt  rWuction  indiqui  ei-dtssous. 

10X  14X  18X 


22X 


2«X 


»x 


7 


Th«  copy  filmad  bars  hu  bMn  raproducad  thanka 
to  tha  ganaroaity  of: 

National  Library  of  Canada 


L'axamplaira  lllmi  fut  raproduit  griea  i  la 
gAntroaiU  da: 

Blbllothiqua  natlonala  du  Canada 


Tha  imagaa  appaaring  hara  ara  tha  boat  quality 
potalbla  Gonaidaring  tha  condition  and  lagibillty 
of  tha  original  copy  and  In  Itaaping  with  tha 
filming  contract  apaciflcatlona. 


Laa  Imagaa  tuivantaa  ont  *t*  raproduitas  avac  la 
plus  grand  toin,  compta  tanu  da  la  condition  at 
da  la  nattati  da  Taaamplaira  film*,  at  an 
conformity  avac  laa  condltlona  du  contrat  da 
fllmaga. 


Original  copiaa  in  printod  papar  covora  ara  filmad 
baginning  with  tha  front  covar  and  anding  on 
tha  laat  paga  with  a  printad  or  illuali  ^tad  impraa- 
aion.  or  tha  back  covar  whan  approt»iala.  All 
othar  original  copiaa  ara  filmad  baginning  on  tha 
firat  paga  with  a  printad  or  llluatratad  impraa- 
aion.  and  anding  on  tha  laat  paga  with  a  printad 
or  llluatratad  impraaaion. 


Tha  laat  racordad  frama  on  aach  microfiche 
ahall  eonuin  tha  symbol  -*'  (moaning  "CON- 
TINUED"!, or  tha  aymboi  ▼  (moaning  "END"), 
whiehavar  applioa. 

Mapa,  plataa,  eharta.  ate.  may  ba  filmad  at 
diffarant  raduction  ratios.  Thoaa  too  largo  to  bo 
antiraly  includad  in  ona  axposura  ara  filmad 
baginning  in  tha  uppar  laft  hand  cornor.  laft  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  as  many  framas  as 
raquirad.  Tha  following  diagrama  illuatrata  tha 
mathod: 


Laa  axamplalraa  originaux  dont  la  eouvartura  *n 
papiar  ast  imprimto  sont  filmts  »n  eommancant 
par  la  pramiar  plat  at  an  tarminani  soit  par  la 
darnlAra  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'Impraaalon  ou  d'illustration,  soit  par  la  ascond 
plat,  salon  la  caa.  Toua  laa  autras  aaamplairas 
originaua  sont  filmla  an  commandant  par  la 
pramiira  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'Impraaalon  ou  d'illuatration  at  »n  tarminant  par 
la  darnJAra  paga  qui  comporta  una  talla 
amprainta. 

Un  daa  aymbolaa  suivanta  apparaitra  sur  la 
darnitra  imaga  da  chaqua  microfiche,  salon  la 
caa:  la  symbola  — ^  signifia  "A  SUIVRE".  la 
aymbola  ▼  aignifia  "FIN". 

Las  cartaa,  planchas.  ubiaaux.  ate.  pauvant  itra 
filmia  i  daa  taux  do  rMuction  diftAranis. 
Lorsqua  la  document  oat  trop  grand  pour  itra 
raproduit  an  un  saul  clich*.  il  ast  film*  *  panir 
da  I'angla  supAriaur  gaucha.  da  gaucha  1  droits. 
at  da  haul  an  baa.  an  pranant  la  nombra 
d'imagaa  n4caaaaira.  Laa  diagrammaa  suivants 
illuatrant  la  mothodo. 


1  2  3 


1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

MKXOCOrv   HSOUITION  TBT  CHART 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No,  2) 


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1.25 


112 


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12.2 


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1.4     11.6 


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"^PLIED  IIVMGE    Inc 

mt   Main   SIrMt 
tif.   Naw   York         Ue09       USA 
482  -  0300  -  Phont 
('.jj  I,=8-5989  -Fox 


(5.1^..''- 


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DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


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THE  UACMILLAN  COMPANY 

nW  YOtX  ■  lOtTON  ■  CBtCAOO  •  OAUJU 
ATLANTA  •  lAH  IIAHCISCO 

MACMILLAN  A  CO..  Uuited 


THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Lm 
TDIOMTO 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


A  TEXT-BOOK  FOR  SURVEY 
STUDENTS 


BY 

R.  W.  CAUTLEY,  DX.S.,  B.C.L  SALS 

LATE  «™™voBTO  THE  ^,  „T.E9  omcE  AT  .OMONTON 
«3««TA,  ANB  „„BEB  AlBERTA  AND  BaiT.Se 
COLUMU  BOONOiBY  COIUUSMON 


»«»  f  orb 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

1913 


^U  righu  raunai 


CoprmioBT,  1B18 

Bl  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

art  up  ud  .li«<n)typ«l.    Publiilnd  Dnnsbn,  UH. 


00937429 


INTRODUCTION 

Title  to  land  is  based  upon  the  description 
contained  in  the  deed  conveying  it.  It  is  not 
enough  that  the  boundaries  should  be  accurately 
surveyed:  the  land  itself  must  be  so  described 
in  the  deed  as  to  identify  it  without  ambiguity 
and  beyond  any  possible  doubt.  The  importance 
of  a  precise  description  is  enhanced  when  the 
lx><ndaries  ate  partially  or  wholly  unsurveyed: 
it  must  then  be  so  bounded  that  all  the  surveyors 
who  may  be  employed  in  laying  out  the  bo'-fdaries 
shall  find  identical  lines  if  their  open,  ^  are 
conducted  with  accuracy,  and  that  the  land  lying 
between  the  lines  so  located  shall  be  the  particular 
piece  of  land  which  the  parties  to  the  deed  are 
intending  to  deal  with.  A  surveyor  who  is  draft- 
ing a  description  must  be  al  'o  express  what  he 
wishes  to  say  in  sentences  that  will  admit  of  only 
one  interpretation;  ho  must  have  a  clear  concep- 
tion of  what  he  has  to  describe,  of  the  surveying 
operations  involved  and  of  the  exact  meaning  of 
the  words  he  is  using,  as  mterpreted  by  judicial 
decisions. 

The  writing  of  descriptions  cannot  be  governed 
by  absolute  rules.   Whether  a  piece  of  land  should 


yi  INTRODUCTION 

be  described  by  adjoinera,  or  by  land  marks  or 
by  the  courses  and  length  of  the  boundaries  de- 
pends upon  a  variety  of  circumstances:  when  in 
doubt  the  surveyor  should  be  guided  by  legal 
advice.  While  it  is  true  that  most  lawyers  are 
quite  ignorant  of  the  most  elementary  principles 
of  surveying,  it  is  equally  true  that  few  surveyors, 
if  any,  >ire  able  to  understand  the  intricacies  of  a 
complicated  title.  The  cooperation  of  surveyor 
and  lawyer  is  necessary. 

One  of  the  blessings  of  the  Dominion  Lands 
System  of  Survey  is  that  descriptions  generally 
assume  such  a  simple  form  that  the  average  sur- 
veyor should  have  no  difficulty  in  writing  them 
if  he  will  only  take  the  trouble  to  conform  to  a 
few  rules. 

In  the  pages  which  toUow  Mr.  R.  W.  Cautley 
has  endeavored  to  formulate  these  rules:  his 
experience  as  a  surveyor  in  active  practice  for  a 
number  of  years  and  subsequently  as  Surveyor 
to  the  Land  Titles  Office  at  Edmonton  having 
given  him  exceptional  opportunities,  his  views  on 
the  questions  involved  are  especially  valuable. 
E.  Deville. 


PREFACE 


While  there  are  a  great  many  standard  works 
on  the  subject  of  con-'eyancing,  they  deal,  for 
the  most  part,  with  thi  ...gal  aspect  of  the  subject, 
with  which  a  survey  student  has  nothing  to  do. 
At  the  rime  time  all  survey  students  in  Canada 
are  required  to  pass  an  examination  on  "Descrip- 
tions of  Land,"  which  is  one  impoH  nt  branch 
of  the  subject  of  convcyancmg.  I  h  \  therefore 
written  the  following  text-book  in  t-e  hope  that 
it  may  prove  useful  m  helping  survey  students 
to  get  up  the  <ubject  for  their  examination,  and — 
what  is  far  more  important — to  realize  the  im- 
portance of  the  subject,  and,  by  further  study  of 
it,  to  become  capable  of  filling  a  more  useful 
position  as  a  surveyor  in  after  life.  Writing 
descriptions  of  land  is  essentially  a  branch  of  sur- 
veying and  every  complicated  description  should 
be  drawn  by  an  authorized  surveyor.  Unfor- 
tunately a  great  many  surveyors  are  satisfied 
with  obtaining  proficiency  in  field  work,  as  the 
most  important  and  lucrative  part  of  surveying, 
and  do  not  take  the  trouble  to  become  proficient 
in  description  writing,  draughtsmanship,  survey 
law  or  any  other  kindred  subject  once  they  have 


VIU 


PREFACE 


obtained  their  commission.  I  venture  to  say  that 
any  surveyor,  having  just  acquired  his  commis- 
sion, w^o  will  devote  a  year  or  two  to  acquiring 
a  knowledge  of  office  work  and  general  business 
methods  in  a  department  of  the  Government,  in 
the  land  department  of  a  railway  system  or  in  the 
employ  of  .jiy  corporation  having  extensive  deal- 
mgs  'ri  land,  will  find  that  the  knowledge  so  ob- 
taineil  will  open  to  him  a  wider  field  of  oppor- 
tunity that  will  more  than  compensate  him  for 
the  increased  earnings  which  he  might  have  had 
by  undertaking  field  work  at  once. 

In  studying  this  subject  it  is  important  to  note 
the  close  connection  between  the  practice  of  sur- 
veying, the  writmg  of  descriptions  of  land  and  a 
knowledge  of  the  laws  governing  registration  of 
land  titles.  It  is  absolutely  essential  that  any 
surveyor  who  undertakes  to  write  descriptions  of 
land  in  any  given  province  must  first  have  a 
knowledge  of  the  Real  Property  Act  in  force  m 
that  province. 


6th  July,  1913. 
Edmonton,  Alberta. 


CONTENTS 

Section 
Descriptions  based  on  actual  survey  1-2 
Descriptions  must  refer  to  plans  of 

RECORD 3 

Plans  and  ho—  to  refer  to  them, 

General  .     4_= 

Departmental  Plana 6 

Subdivision  Plans 7_9 

Explanatory  Plans 10-17 

Railway  Plans 18-19 

Use  or  natural  boundaries  in  descrip- 
tors    20-25 

Use  of  words  "more  or  less"  in  de- 
scriptions    26-29 

Use  op  bearings  in  descriptions 30-39 

Description  of  remainders 40-42 

Description  by  exception 43-47 

Description  of  railway  right  of  way  48-50 
Exception  of  minerals  in  descriptions  51 
Interpretation  of  faulty  descriptions  52-53 

Forms  of  preamble 54 

Examples,    Description  of: — 

city  lot  with  appurtenant  easement .         55 

partition  of  two  city  lots 56 

part  quarter  section 58 

part  bounded  by  right  of  way 59 

ordinary  right  of  way 49 

right  of  way  by  metes  and  bounds . .        60 

additional  right  of  way 62 

interior  parcel  of  quarter  section  ...         15 


Page 
1 


11 
13 
16 
23 

27 

34 
37 
48 
54 
59 
68 
71 
75 

76 
77 
82 
84 
60 
85 
87 
18 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


AU  Descriptions  of  Land  must  be  Based  on 
Actual  Surrey. 

1.  Since  the  ownership  of  land  is  the  most 
univeisal  and,  at  thu  same  time,  the  most  per- 
manent form  of  property,  it  follows  that  convey- 
ancing of  land  constitutes  the  most  common  and 
important  class  of  transactions  in  the  everyday 
business  of  the  world. 

The  term  "conveyance  of  land"  includes  all  Meaning  of 

,  .        J     I  term      con- 

documentary   instruments   purportmg   to    aeai  ^yj„ce  of 
with  the  ownership  of  land,  whether  by  way  of  land." 
absolute  sale  or  transfer,  transmission,  agreement 
of  sole  or  lease. 

Every  conveyance  of  land  may,  tor  the  present 
purpose,  be  regarded  as  consistmg  of  two  essential 
parts;  first,  that  which  defines  the  relation  be- 
tween the  parties  U)  the  document  as  to  their 
respective  interest  in  the  land,  and  secondly, 
that  which  defines  the  actual  position  and  extent 
of  the  land  itself.  The  first  of  these  two  parts 
is  a  matter  of  drawing  up  a  legal  document,  and 
should  generally  be  done  by  a  lawyer:— with  it 
1 


•11 


I 


2  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

we  have  nothing  to  do  here.  The  second  involves 
the  description  of  land  and  fonns  the  subject  of 
this  text  book. 
Description  2.  To  begin  with  the  fact  must  be  recognised  that 
Tn'l^ey"''''  *"  descriptions  of  land  must  be  based  upon  p 
survey  of  the  land  in  question,  and  the  establish- 
ment on  the  ground  of  recognisable  points  by 
which  the  land  described  may  be  identified. 
Such  points  may  be  either  comers  of  a  mathe- 
matical survey  marked  on  the  gi  nd  by  the 
establishment  of  posts  or  other  survey  monu- 
ments, or  they  may  be  topographical  features  of 
the  country.  In  the  former  case,  since  the  points 
are  arbitrarily  determined,  it  is  essential  that  the 
lines  which  coimect  them  should  be  mathemati- 
cally surveyed.  In  the  latter  this  is  not  essential 
for  purposes  of  conveyancing  unless  it  is  desired 
to  include  in  the  conveyance  precise  information 
as  to  the  area  and  measurements  of  the  land 
convoyed. 

For  instance,  when  two  Indian  chiefs  wanted 
to  determine  the  boundaries  of  their  respective 
hunting  grounds,  they  did  so  by  reference  to  a 
range  of  hills  and  an  intersecting  river— points 
of  the  landscape  which  were  patent  to  their  eyes 
and  capable  of  identification  by  their  tribesmen — 
and  in  so  doing  made  an  actual  survey  of  the 
country. 
Again,  after  the  North-West  Rebellion  in  188S 


Description 
by  natural 
boundaries. 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  3 

the  Government  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada  is- 
sued land  scrip  to  veterans  and  half  breeds  for  a 
certain  specified  quantity  of  land  in  the  North- 
West  Territories,  the  position  of  which  was  unde- 
fined in  the  scrip  and  left  to  the  choice  of  the 
holder.    This  scrip  was  exchangeable  for  as  much 
real  property  as  the  number  of  acres  mentioned 
in  it;  at  the  same  time  the  land  could  not  be  con- 
veyed until  the  owner  of  the  scrip  had  located  it 
according  to  the  Government's  own  surveys  and 
received  a  patent  for  it  from  the  Crown.   In  other 
words  the  scrip  could  be  sold  as  a  chattel  but  the 
land  which  it  represented  could  only  be  conveyed 
after  it  had  been  defined  in  reference  to  surveys 
on  the  ground. 

Of  course  the  above  rule— that  all  descriptions  DMcription. 
must  be  based  on  actual  survey— is  capable  of  °"^  **  '""^ 
secondary  application.    It  is  not  essential  that  ^y."" 
all  the  comers  of  a  parcel  of  land  which  it  is  de- 
sired to  describe  should  be  marked  on  the  ground. 
It  is  not  even  necessary  that  any  of  them  should 
be  so  marked.    What  is  essential  is  that  the  exact 
position  of  each  such  comer  shall  be  so  described 
in  relation  to  the  position  of  some  point  that  is 
surveyed  and  marked  on  the  ground,  and  of  some 
line  of  known  direction  starting  from  said  point, 
that  it  shall  be  capable  of  bemg  accurately  and 
unambiguously  defined  on  the  ground.    To  take 
a  very  simple  example,  it  is  of  course  possible  to 


4  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

describe  and  convey  a  parcel  of  land  containing 
ten  acres  out  of  the  interior  of  a  quarter  section 
by  describing  the  ten  acres  in  reference  to  any 
comer  and  adjacent  side  of  the  quarter  section. 
As  a  further  example  it  is  only  necessary  to  refer 
to  the  Dominion  Lands  Act  1908,  which  expressly 
provides  that  any  quarter  section  shall  be  deemed 
to  be  surveyed  when  any  two  of  the  comers  have 
been  established. 
Deacription        The  most  extreme  cases  of  land  bemg  described 
iTdm  Tlat°  ■"  reference  to  known  points  outside  the  land  it- 
tude  or  longi-  Self  are  those  in  which  boundaries  are  described 
*>«'»•  as  unsurveyed  lints  of  latitude  or  longitude.    In 

these  cases  the  real  reference  is  the  Greenwich 
Observatory  in  England  and  the  local  meridian 
ai  that  point,  although  usually  there  are  many 
subsidiary  points  and  Imes  of  reference  established 
by  previous  survey  much  closer  to  the  projected 
line  than  Greenwich.  For  instance,  the  North 
boundary  of  the  Provinces  of  Saskatchewan  and 
Alberta  has  been  defined  as  the  60th  parallel  of 
North  latitude,  and  the  West  boundary  of  Al- 
berta, is,  in  part,  the  120th  Meridian  of  West 
longitude,  none  of  these  being  actually  defined 
on  the  ground.  In  these  cases,  however,  the 
rights  of  possession  guaranteed  by  a  title  based 
on  a  line  of  latitude  or  longitude  cannot  be  fully 
enjoyed  by  the  owner,  or  enforced  against  possible 
trespass,  until  such  time  as  the  line  is  actually 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  5 

defined  on  the  ground.   The  story  of  the  Hudson's 
Bay  Company's  Post  on  the  Yukon  River  affords 
a  good  illustration  of  this  point.    Many  years 
ago  the  common  boundary  between  that  part  of 
the  North-VVest  Territories  now  knon-n  as  the 
Yukon  Territory  and  Alaska— a  territory  of  the 
United  States— was  defined  as  the  141st  Meridian 
of  West  longitude.    In  1847  the  compnny  estab- 
lished a  trading  post  at  Ijrt  Yukon  at  the  Junc- 
tion of  the  Yukon  and  Porcupine  Rivers,  but, 
when  the  first  surveys  of  the  country  were  made 
it  was  found  that  the  longitude  of  Fort  Yukon  was 
approximately  145°  20"  West,  and  its  latitude 
66    34'  North,  so  that  the  fort  was  about  120 
miles  due  West  of  the  British  American  boundary, 
and  within  American  Territory.    As  a  result  the 
company's  post  was  moved  Easterly  to  a  point 
on  the  Porcupine  River  which  was  Eist  of  the 
boundary,  and  was  named  Rampart  House,  m 
1869  or  1870. 

Before  leaving  this  phase  of  the  subject  it  may  Descriptions 
be  stated  as  a  fact  that,  in  all  ordinary  cases  and  ""^  "'  ^^ 
provided  it  is  correct  in  other  respects,  a  descrip-  Zl^Z  1( 
tion  of  land  is  good  or  bad  in  inverse  ratio  to  the  ""^^y  o" 
distance  of  the  land  described  from  the  points  of  TrelLS"' 
reference  in  regard  to  which  it  is  described.    In 
other  words,  that  description  is  best  in  which  the 
point  of  commencement  at  least  is  referred  to  as 
bemg  actudUy  defined  on  the  ground,  and  the 


6  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

wont  form  of  description  is  that  in  which  the 
connection  between  the  pomt  of  commencement 
of  the  land  described  and  the  points  of  reference 
in  relation  to  which  it  is  described  is  long,  com- 
plicated and  obscure. 

The  following  reasons  may  be  given  for  the 
above  statement: — 

(a),  A  description  should  always  be  made  as 
simple  and  direct  as  possible. 

(6).  A  description  does  not  fulfil  all  its  purposes 

until  the  land  described  has  been  identified  on 

the  ground,  and  although  a  description  based  on 

a  survey  at  some  distance  from  the  land  described 

may  be  perfectly  sufficient  for  the  purpose  of 

conveying  the  said  land  it  necessitates  a  survey 

before  the  land  can  be  identified  and  is,  to  that 

extent,  incomplete. 

DeMripton        (c).  A  description  of  land  the  boundaries  of 

tual'poMtio'n"  wWch  are  described  as  being  between  certain 

ol  pointi  on   posts  or  other  monuments  on  the  ground  is  bound 

*""'''  •         by  the  actual  position  of  such  posts  or  monuments, 

and  thus  any  errors  of  distances  or  bearings  given 

in  the  written  description  are  absorbed  by  the 

s  jTvey  on  the  ground. 


DeKripaon,  Should  Refer  to  Pl„,  of  Survey 
Which  «e  of  Record,  .s  weU  ,s  to  the 
Survey  Itself. 

3.  Having  seen  that  all  descriptions  of  land  D«^„ 
must  be  based  on  actual  land  surveys-near  or^  ^^u, 
mote-,t  IS  very  important  to  realize  that  de-  ^  "' 
scnptions  should  always  refer  to  a  plan  of  thesurt  •^"• 
vey  registered  m  some  public  office  of  the  State, 

Z  '^,*°  tl  """""  '"^^  '"'^  monuments  on 
the  ground  There  are  several  reasons  for  this 
of  which  the  following  are  perhaps  the  most  Zi 
portantr-^ 

W.  A  survey  on  the  ground  cannot  be  brought  R..i„„     k 
withm  he  comprehension  of  any  person  interesS  "-X"«o:^ 
n  the  land,  except  the  surveyor  who  has  made  IT  7"  '" 
the  survey,  until  it  has  been  plotted  in  plan  fo™  "'y        "" 
on  a  convenient  scale.    If  you  take  a  man  out  on 
the  prame  and  tell  him  that  you  are  standing  at 
about  the  centre  of  a  piece  of  land  having  certain 
measurements  and  containing  a  specified  acreage 
he  can  only  be  convinced  m  so  far  as  his  faithin' 

mtegnty  will  cany  him.  If,  on  the  other  hand 
you  are  able  to  show  him  a  plan  of  the  same  land 
^th  the  various  measurements  shown  on  it  and 
bcarmg  on  its  face  the  affidavit  of  a  Stete  au- 
7 


8 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


thoriied  land  surveyor  and  the  signaturea  of  the 
owner  and  the  public  official  whose  duty  it  is  to 
keep  such  plan  as  a  matter  of  public  record,  he 
is  at  once  able  to  realize  the  position  and  extent 
of  the  land  for  himself. 

(b).  It  is  impracticable  for  all  the  principals, 
or  their  agents,  who  have  to  deal  in  land  to  visit 
any  given  parcel  of  land,  or  to  have  it  resurveyed, 
every  time  they  desire  to  ascertain  anything  in 
regard  to  it. 

(c).  A  plan  duly  registered  in  a  place  of  public 
record  tends  to  do  away  with  any  chance  of  the 
actual  survey  on  the  ground  being  tampered  with 
by  interested  parties. 

(d).  Many  surve)rs  become  obliterated  alto- 
gether in  process  of  time,  either  by  decay  or  up- 
rooting of  the  monuments  or  by  fire,  so  that  a 
conveyance  of  land  in  which  the  land  is  described 
in  reference  to  posts  planted  in  the  ground  would, 
if  such  posts  were  entirely  obliterated,  often 
become  valueless,  whereas  any  proper  plan  of 
survey  containa  information  from  which  it  would 
be  possible  to  reconstruct  the  survey  on  the 
ground  in  such  a  case. 

(e).  No  registrar  of  land  titles,  under  the 
Torrens  system  of  land  t'.*'es  which  rbtalns  in 
all  the  Western  Provinces  of  Canada  and  to  a 
certain  extent  in  Eastern  Canada,  can  properly 
issue  certificates  of  title  based  on  facts  of  survey 


DBSCRlPTtOSS  OF  LAND 


0 


which  are  not  a  matter  of  record  in  hi,  own  office 

^t  w  "r'"  °°  ^  '^~"'«' '- "-  *: 

matters  of  office  record  it  follows  that  «  ,>!.»    / 

iandforregistraInpi::3'''-<'-"P'-of 

by'^tS'Tf  T'^"'""  "">'  '^  »"=^..«ed 
By  stating  that  all  references  to  surveys  to  h. 
made  in  descriptions  of  land  should  ^maS  to 
P^ans  o  such  surveys  in  order  that  thTytav 
be  mtelligible.  accessible  for  purposes  of  v,^^ 
-on,  better  established  and^S;ijS: 

whth?bSsttd  mart""  '"'"^'  °'  "-^  ^■— 

t-e  «urvey"t  Ic^J^^l't  IZV'  ■""  ' ""' 
3^  Of  the  description  rd  ^^rtry  b^TlS  -^J/ 

X  orsr"""*"  ''""^  "^  *"•'  P'»-  A  efficient 

£riD  inrT*^'^'"*-*"'*^  "  '^''P'''^''"y  drawn 
descnpuon  of  the  parcels  of  land  shown  on  it    A 

advantages  ever  a  written  description,  (a)  that 
the  more  intricate  points  of  the  surve^  are  1 
dered  capable  of  being  visually  ^ali.ed  by  bsZ 

Plottmg  the  survey  on  a  plan  serves  as  h  check 
~t  ej™,.  which  may  easily  be  made  and^. 
discovered  m  a  written  description. 


10 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


Definition  of 
B  "sufficient" 
plan  of  sur- 
vey. 


5.  A  plan  of  survey  that  is  "sufficient"  for 
the  purpose  of  conveying  land  by  reference  to  it 
may  be  defined  as  having  the  following  attributes: 

(a).  That  it  is  a  plan  of  an  actual  survey  made 
upon  the  ground  and  marked  on  the  ground  in 
such  a  way  that  the  parcels  of  land  surveyed  may 
be  capable  of  identification. 

(6).  That  it  is  made  by  a  surveyor  authorized 
by  law  to  make  such  a  survey. 

(c).  That  the  survey  and  plan  are  made  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  provisions  of  any  law  aSfectmg 
the  making  of  such  survey  or  plan,  as  to  the 
method  of  survey  employed,  the  marking  of  the 
survey  on  the  ground  and  the  execution  of  the 
plan  by  the  surveyor,  the  registered  owner  and 
any  other  person  required  to  execute  the  same 
under  the  said  provisions. 

(d).  That  the  plan  is  of  record  in  the  public 
office  wherein  such  a  plan  is  required  to  be  regis- 
tered by  the  law  in  that  behalf. 


PlMs  <md  How  to  Refer  to  them  in  Descriptio 
of  Land. 


Depabtmental  Plans 


6.  The  most  important  class  of  plans  are  those  ta™^. 
-ued  by  the  departments  of  the  Government  :?  "  "^r„. 
the  ongmal  surveys  of  different  parts  of  Canada  "^°"*""' 

the'f'Tt'Jrr'"'"  °'  *''«-  P'-^  --^™m  ■"""'• 
the  fact  hat  they  are  the  plans  of  the  surveys  on 
wbch  aJl  ong^a,  g,^t^  j^^  ^^^  Crewn  have 

title  to  land  depends.  Owmg  to  the  fact  that  the 
ongmaJ  surveys  were  not  always  made  carefully, 
>t  has  been  found  necessary  in  a  great  many  in- 
staiices  to  have  certain  sections  of  the  country 
resmjeyed,  and  new  plans  of  the  corrected  survey 
■ssued  so  that  it  is  quite  usual  to  find  two,  and 
even  three,  departmental  plans  of  the  same  town- 
ship having  different  measurements  and  acreages 
shown  on  them. 

AH  these  plans  are  of  record  in  the  office  of  the  Whe„  of 
department  by  whose  authority  they  were  issued  '^'^■ 

■Wv"^  1  ?  ^'^  ^"^  °*««  f°'  ""«  district 
m  which  the  land  occurs.    They  are  usually  iden-  How  ide„«. 
tified  m  descriptions  that  are  ba^d  on  them  by  ««•. 
11  ' 


12 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


Examples. 


reference  to  the  date  of  the  official  approval  of 
the  survey  which  they  represent. 

Two  examples  are  given  below  of  the  way  in 
which  departmental  plans  may  be  referred  to  in 
descriptions  of  land: — 

(a).  The  whole  of  the  South  East  quarter  of 
Section  1  in  Township  54  and  Range  23  West  of 
the  4th  Meridim  in  the  Province  of  Alberta  in 
the  Dominion  of  Canada  containing  160  acres 
more  or  less  and  as  the  same  is  shown  on  a  plan 
of  survey  of  said  township  approved  and  confirmed 
by  the  Surveyor  General  of  Canada  at  Ottawa 
on  the  14th  day  of  May,  1894,  which  plan  is  of 
record  m  the  Department  of  the  Interior  at  Ottawa 
and  in  the  Land  Titles  Office  for  the  North  Alberta 
Land  Registration  District  at  Edmonton  m  said 
Province. 

(6).  The  whole  of  the  fractional  South  West 
quarter  of  Section  6  in  Township  51  and  Range  24 
West  of  the  4th  Meridian  in  the  Province  of  Al- 
berta in  the  Dommion  of  Canada  containing  39 
acres  more  or  less  and  as  the  same  is  shown  on  a 
plan  of  survey  of  part  of  the  said  township  being  a 
subdivision  of  part  of  the  Papaschase  Indian 
Reserve  made  by  A.  Nelson,  Dominion  Land  Sur- 
veyor and  signed  by  him  at  Ottawa  on  the  29th 
day  of  March,  1892,  which  plan  is  of  record  m 
the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs  at  Ottawa  and 
in  the  Land  Titles  Office  for  the  North  Alberta 


DESCRIPTlOm  OF  LAUD  jg 

pie  (6)  .a  »uppo«d  to  represent  a  ca«=  ;f  tUs  Unt 

Subdivision  Plans 

portant,  because  of  the  value  of  the  land  whirh 
they  represent  and  the  gi^t  number  of  conv^J 
ances  hat  are  based  on  them,  is  that  of  City  or 
townsite  plans  of  subdivision. 

with  city  or  W  tts  ""^^  ''^«  *°  <*"     ""°""""- 

whfh'?  '°*«^«»^=t  of  small  parcels  of  land 
which  ,t  would  not  be  practicable  to  deal  with  1 
-dependent  parcels  described  m  referencetoth" 

of  S  "    T  "'f^'  '^'^  ^"-^y  -  ~ 

take  lor  ■  *'^  "'^'"  °'  '^^-<'«°-  "^«t 
take  place  m  regard  to  them  and  the  fact  that 

of  the  land  occupied  by  each  lot. 
It  ^  quite  usual  for  a  quarter  section,  contain- 

Z  ll  T  :  ^  "''^'^''-''^'^  '"*»  1-000  town 
lots,  with  streets  and  lanes.    This  often  results 


14 


DES'''RIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


Subdivision 
ptaDs  spe- 
cially pro- 
vided for  in 
Real  Property 
Acta. 


Registration 
of  subdivision 
plan  causes 
change   in 
form  of  titie. 


in  thousands  of  persons  acquirii  g  an  interest  in 
small  portions  of  the  quarter  section,  either  as 
owner,  mortgagee,  lessee  or  tenant,  and  in  endless 
complicatic.   of  title. 

8.  In  order  to  meet  the  foi-egoing  conditions 
all  Real  Property  Acts  contain  provisions  that 
have  the  following  general  effect,  although  they 
vary  uonsidjrably  in  scope  and  treatment: 

(a).  That  an  owner  desiring  to  create  a  town- 
site  on  his  property  may  register  a  plan  of  sub- 
division of  the  same,  showmg  the  blocks  and  lots 
designated  by  numbers  or  letters,  the  position 
of  streets,  lanes,  p.«ks,  etc.,  and  all  necessary 
measurements. 

(6).  That  upon  the  registration  of  such  a  plan 
he  may  proceed  to  sell  or  otherwise  deal  with  the 
town  lots  shown  thereon  by  reference  to  the  regis- 
tration marks  of  the  plan  and  the  niunbers  or 
letters  shown  on  the  plan  to  designate  such  lots. 

9.  On  the  registration  of  a  plan  of  subdivision 
under  the  Torrens  system  of  land  titles  the  owners' 
title  is  changed  in  form  from  a  title  based  on  the 
original  land  survey  o  a  title  to  lots  and  blocks 
based  on  the  plan  of  subdivision.  For  instance 
in  the  case  of  a  man  owning  a  quarter  section  of 
land  within  the  limits  of  an  incorporated  city 
and  presentmg  for  registration  a  plan  of  subdivi- 
sioj  of  the  entire  quarter  section,  his  title  to  the 
quarter  section — as  such — would  be  cancelled  in 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


15 


title  for  all  the  lots  shown  on  the  plan.    It  follows  »'  ™Mivi.ion 
that  descriptions  of  lots,  or  parts  of  lots,  in  a  city  p^T"  '" 
or  townsite  must  always  be  based  on  the  registered  ^"Z  L  it 
plan  of  subdivision,  and  that,  after  the  registra-  ?""-^. 
tion  of  such  a  plan,  it  is  wrong  to  attempt  to  de-  Sl^n":^  J., 
scribe  them  m  any  other  way.   Take  the  supposed 
case  of  Lot  1  m  Block  13  situate  in  the  town  of 
Orwell  and  being  part  of  the  South  East  quarter 
of  Section  1  m  Township  46,  Range  23  West  of 
the  Fourth  Meridian  as  shown  on  a  plan  registered 
m  the  district  land  titles  office  under  number  2079 
m  Day  Book  Q.   A  good  and  sufficient  description 
of  the  above  lot  would  "oe  as  follows:—  "Lot  num- 
bered Ont  (1)  in  Block  numbered  Thirteen  (13) 
m  the  Town  of  Orwell  in  the  Province  of  Alberta 
as  the  same  is  shown  on  a  plan  of  survey  regis- 
tered in  the  Land  Titles  Office  for  the  North  Al- 
berta Land  Registration  District  under  number 
2079  in  Day  Book  Q." 

But  suppose  it  is  merely  described  as  "Lot 
numbered  One  (1)  in  Block  numbered  Thirteen 
m  the  Town  of  Orwell  being  part  of  the  South 
East  quarter  of  Section  One  (1)  in  Township 
Forty-sbc  (46),  Range  Twenty-three  (2S)  West 
of  the  Fourth  (4th)  Meridian,"  this  is  insufiicient 
for  the  xollowin;  reasons; — 

(a).  There  is  no  certificate  of  title  in  existence 
which  corresponds  with  and  can  be  identified  with 


16 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


the  terms  of  the  description.  The  description 
contained  in  the  Certificate  of  Title  for  this  lot 
is  based  on  plan  2079  Q,  which  defines  its  size  and 
relative  position. 

(6).  There  may  be,  and  e.xperience  shows  that 
there  frequently  is,  an  unregistered  plan  which 
shows  Lot  1  Block  13  to  be  in  an  entirely  different 
position  and  which,  nevertheless,  was  the  plan 
which  the  parties  to  the  sale  or  !«!reement  had 
agreed  upon. 


Explanatory  Plans 

pil^rj''^"  ^'^'  ^  ^^"^  "^^  °^  P'*"*  *"*  *"=«  "^^^"^  are 
plans.  "'^  drawn  fo-  the  express  purpose  of  accompanying 
and  elucidating  particular  descriptions  of  land,  and 
which  are  attached  to  and  form  part  of  such  de- 
scription. For  the  purpose  of  distinguishing  them 
from  departmental  plans  or  subdivision  plans, 
they  will  be  referred  to  as  "explanatory  plans." 
Provided  for       11.  Most  of  the  Real  Property  Acts  in  Canada 

in  Real  Prop-  ^..„    •       ..u   j.      -r.     .  •**«*wa. 

erty  Acta.  ProviQS  that  a  Registrar  may  require  any  person 
desiring  to  register  an  mstrument  cont-ining  a 
complicated  description  of  land  to  furnish  him 
with  an  explanatory  plan,  signed  by  an  authorized 
surveyor,  and  to  make  the  description  in  the  in- 
strument subject  to  the  plan  by  embodying  a 
direct  reference  to  the  plan  in  the  mstrument 
itself. 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


17 


ai^lSXl:  -;-t°n.p.an  is  to  ...„,... 

be  capable  of  eo^Xlt  ^yTnl^^r  "^  ^'- °"^ 
his  staff,  the  weii?I,t  «f      • .  «e«'strar,  or 

whom  the  Government  ClZTtoT'T 

theeorrz:i:t^^^^^^ 
ititrs:r:Xe^\-rj;r"-^^^^'"'' 

veyancine  s^  th»t  t^^  ""^  "'^^  "f  «on- 

the  part  of  W^'  tr  "  T^"^'  *^'"'«-y  -     ■ 
evalg  the  nSti  0^     '"  t°*^  """^^  "^ 
Question  i^JT^':Z'XTZt^  .^' 
complicated  description     ATtlel  *'' '^ 

question  generally  li°   in  The  H       T  *"  *'^  °°'^-«-  °' 
Registrar  it  is  onlv!!!    u,        ''''<"'«*'on  of  the  ^^plicted 

r.i^:hrs:rtht:;hrat^^^^ 

-trieal  ^.cu^tirn^tT^^  %^»°- 
-tness  of  the  various  cout,  "r  to  p^t  Z  Z 
courses  in  order  to  p™ve  the  cor^ecfel  „,  Th 
acreage  specified,  is  complicated  witlSlTe  me^! 
wg  of  the  term  as  applied  here. 
14.  Explanatory  pla^,  ,^  ^^,  ^^^^^  ^ 


18 


DESCRIPTIOffS  OF  LAND 


How  regi^  independent  instruments,  as  are  plans  of  sub- 
tered.  division,  but  are  merely  attached  to  the  instru- 
ment of  which  they  are  really  a  part,  and  must 
be  leferred  to  accordingly.  For  example: — " — 
and  as  shown  colored  red  on  a  plan  of  survey 
attached  to  an  instrument  registered  in  the 
Land  Titles  Office  for  the  Land  Reg- 
istration  District  under  number  in  Day 

Book ." 

15.  As  explanatory  plans  are  intended  to  ac- 
company a  description  of  a  particular  parcel  of 
land  it  only  becomes  necessary  to  refer  to  them 
in  descriptions  affecting  the  same  land.    That  is 
they  are  plans  of  special  record  affecting  one  par- 
ticular parcel  of  land  instead  of  heiD<r  plans  of 
general  record  affecting  many  different  titles,  as 
in  the  case  of  a  departmental  plan  or  a  plan  of 
subdivision.    Moreover,  whereas  a  departmental 
plan  is  usually  a  plan  of  an  original  survey,  and  a 
subdivision  plan  is  one  that  has  been  accepted 
in  lieu  of  such  plan  of  original  survey,  so  that,  in 
either  case,  all  titles  which  are  based  on  them  de- 
pend directly  on  the  plan  itself  and  the  survey 
which  it  represents,  this  is  not  the  case  with  ex- 
planatory plans. 
Explanatory       Explanatory  plans  can  only  be  used  to  accom- 
Mc^^da^^  '  pany  a  description  of  a  part  of  one  of  the  larger 
base  of  de-     parcels  shown  on  a  plan  of  general  record,  and 
Bcription.        jmy  (.;^[g  iggygj  qq  g^^h  a  description  depends, 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  19 

firat,  on  the  plan  of  general  record,  and,  second- 
arily, on  the  explanatory  plan. 

Hence  it  is  sometimes  held  that  a  description 
accompanied  by  an  explanatory  plan  must  in- 
clude m  the  text  a  full  written  description  of  the 
lands  by  metes  and  bounds,  as  well  as  the  refer- 
erences  to  the  plan  of  general  record  and  the  ex- 
planatory plan,  as  in  example  (a)  given  below.  On 
the  other  hand  it  is  veiy  common  practice  to 
make  the  description  depend  directly  on  the  ex- 
planatory plan,  as  m  example  (6). 

My  own  opinion  is  that  either  form  is  correct 
providmg  the  explanatory  plan  is  a  plan  of  ac 
tual  survey,  duly  certified  by  an  authorized  sur- 
veyor  and  sufficiently  executed  by  the  registered 
owner  of  the  land. 

The  advantage  in  Form  (a,  Ues  m  the  fact  that 
a  title  issued  on,  and  contain  ng,  such  a  descrip- 
tion  IS,  to  a  large  extent,  self  .-ontained  and  com- 
plete, whereas  a  title  issued  in  Form  (6)  cannot 
be  understood  without  a  certified  copy  of  the 
explanatory  plan  or  an  examination  of  the  original 
at  the  land  registry  office. 

■nie  advantage  m  Form  (6)  is  that  it  does  away 
with  any  r'.ance  of  a  discrepancy  between  the 
written  description  and  the  plan-a  serious  error 
which  IS  by  no  means  uncommon. 

(a).  "All  that  part  of  the  South  East  quarter 
of  Section  twenty  (20)  h  Township  Forty^ven 


20 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


(47)  Range  Twenty-one  (21)  West  of  the  Fourth 
(4th)  Meridian  aa  the  same  is  shown  on  a  plan 
of  survey  of  the  said  Township  approved  and 
confirmed  by  the  Surveyor  General  of  Canada  at 
Ottawa  on  the  14th  day  of  May,  1894,  of  record 
in  the  Department  of  the  Interior  at  Ottawa  and 
in  the  Land  Titles  Office  for  the  North  Alberta 
Land  Registration  District  at  Edmonton  in  the 
Province  of  Alberta  which  may  be  more  par- 
ticularly described  as  follows: — Conmiencing  at 
an  iron  post  planted  at  a  point  on  the  Southerly 
boundary  of  said  quarter  section  distant  six 
hundred  (600')  feet  more  or  less  Westerly  from 
the  South  East  comer  thereof,  Thence  Northerly 
and  parallel  to  the  Easterly  boundary  of  said 
quarter  section  six  hundred  and  sixty  (6600  feet 
more  or  less  to  an  iron  post  planted, 

"Thence  South  forty-five  degrees  pjid  no  min- 
utes more  or  less  West  nine  hundier.  and  thirty- 
three  decimal  point  two  (933.2)  feet  more  or  less  to 
an  iron  post  planted  on  said  Southeriy  boundary, 

"Thence  Easterly  and  following  said  Southerly 
boundary  six  hundred  and  sixty  (660')  feet  more 
or  less  to  the  point  of  commencement, 

"The  part  herein  described  containing  five  (5) 
acres  be  the  same  more  or  less  and  as  shown 
colored  red  on  a  plan  of  survey  of  the  same  made 
by  Alfred  Jones,  Dominion  Land  Surveyor  and 
attached  hereto." 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  UND 


(47)  Range  T^JtyZln^"^^^^''^ 

of  survey  oHhri  T"  'l^"^  ""  "  P'™ 
confinn J  by  the  slJ      A*""  '""""^'^  ""I 

at  Ottawa  on^rutM^fSra^-S"""'''''' 
w  the  Department  of  ♦h.  i  !  ■  ^  °'  '*«'"' 
the  LaBd  TitleTol.  f     i^™'  "*  °*"'^''  «d 

Re«i»trat™Di2Jet  rioT'^''*'*'*^'' 
ince  of  Alberta  Tl     ■  *^°'"°°  ■»  the  Prov- 

colored  red  on  a  nl««  7  ^    '"<'  «'>°'»n 

by  Alfr^C'Sirr^^^ -en.de 
attached  hereto."  '"°"  ^'i  Surveyor  and 

to^'^^edL™ ''„rila^r'''r  ""  "'''«'«' 
described.    In  the  toHL        1^°'  ""'  ^""^ 

™a<ie  m  terms  that  shall  ahsolnt.i     -j      .  'denti/y 

P'an  or  instrument  refel  t    'Jo'dot/'-*'^  ""'^• 
-es^uytohavesomeWlJ:/;:":;:: 


J 


11 


22 


DESCRIPTION.  OF  LAND 


Syiitpln  tif 
ri'sUtratluli 


uiiiliT  whirti  inslruments  an-  rogisterpil  iii  (lifTerrnt 
roRiiitry  officra.  Tlic  moBt  general  Hystcm  of 
tvgiHtmtiun  Ih  tlint  in  wliich  inHtrimcntH  are 
rrgiatcml  iiccunling  to  the  numlxT  given  them 
in  the  current  diiy  l>ook  or  joumul,  and  the  num- 
l)er  or  letter  given  tu  xiiici  l>ook  to  di^tinguifih  it 
from  tlioac  that  liuve  already  lieen  filled  and  those 
of  the  future.  For  inMtanee,  take  a  day  book 
containing  room  for  8,000  entries  and  known  as 
Day  Book  "Q."  E&eh  instrument  that  is  regis- 
tered is  given  the  next  unused  numlier — say 
3679 — and  henceforth  becomes  known  for  all  pur- 
poses of  registration  as  "instrument  registered 

in   the  Land  Titles  Office  for  the Land 

Registration  District  under  number  3679  in  Day 
Book  'Q.'"  or  for  informal  reference,  -,  plan, 
or  document,  "3679  Q."  A  very  common  mistake 
in  ordinary  practice  is  reference  to  an  instrument 
by  its  registered  number  alone,  as  "Instrument 
registered,  etc.,  under  number  3679."  Since  it 
will  be  seen  that  there  are  as  many  instruments 
registered  in  any  registry  office  under  any  given 
number  as  there  are  completed  day  books,  it  is 
unnecessary  to  further  establish  the  fallacy  of 
this  practice,  particularly  when  it  is  understood 
that  instruments  are  indexed  and  filed  for  refer- 
ence in  a  registry  ofiice,  in  sequence  of  numbering, 
under  the  letter  or  number  used  to  designate  the 
particular  day  book  that  they  were  registered  in. 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


23 


17    I 

p'-i™  to  Mo::t;.i  tr :-  r  ^- "" 

-'nparutiv..,,  fe.  IZZ^:'^:''  '"  '"" 
tli'ng  radical'v  wnmo.  .,i      T  "^  '"  "*"""- 

'^thout,u.tio:;r:;;:ir''''^"^-'''^'' 

Railway  Plans 

surveys  of  railway  ri,r!f  '  '^'"«  "'""^  «f  "^-ypW 

tiona  of  land,  „:,  ^t  toT  "  "''"'  ^'^^"'^ 
H«ilway  phn,  were  aM  in^'  '"°""'  ""^  '""'^• 
«ons  of  van-ous"£C;rSr'*' 

notice  of  intention  on  the  tlrt      1  ^''''  ""''"''  "'•'^^"- 
-ilway  companies,  fi^t  to  the  Gove      """""""^ 
approval  and  sanction  are  ne2l~* '^''r 
privileges  grantMi   t„  *:.    "^"^'^'Y  l>efore  the 
charter' canTSen  j;;^  --P-y  under  iu 

P~Po«.l  line,  andTecS  Z  I"'"^*  °'  ''" 
^d  though  Which  theSpas^s  ZZ"'-'" 
to  promoting  the  second  of'th^- oSIT: 


24 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


Why  railway 
plans  used  as 
basis  of  title. 

Inferior  char* 
acter  of  some 
railway  plans. 


Wherein  rail- 
way plans  not 
"sufficient." 


provided  that  railway  plans  shall  be  deposited  in 
the  land  registry  office  for  the  district  in  which 
the  land  affected  occurs.  It  followed  that,  be- 
cause these  plans  were  of  record  in  the  local  land 
registry  offices,  and  because  there  was  no  other 
available  base  of  description  that  was  of  record, 
they  came  to  be  generally  recognized  and  accepted 
as  a  base  of  description  for  title  to  railway  lands. 
Unfortunately  the  class  of  plans  made  under  the 
provisions  of  the  Railway  Acts  and  approved  by 
tt'ose  who  administer  the  said  Acts  as  being  suffi- 
cient for  the  purposes  thereof,  lack  the  essential 
characteristics  which  any  plan  intended  to  be 
used  as  a  base  of  description  for  land  titles  should 
possess.  In  the  first  place  such  a  railway  plan 
is  only  a  plan  of  survey,  in  so  far  as  the  actual 
right  of  way  is  concerned;  m  respect  to  the  land 
boundaries  shown  on  such  a  plan  it  is  merely  a 
sketch,  most  of  the  ties  shown  on  land  boundaries, 
from  the  intersection  of  the  centre  line  of  the 
right  of  way  to  alleged  comers  of  the  parcel  of 
land,  being  derived  from  calculation  based  on 
the  assumption  of  a  theoretically  perfect  original 
survey,  or  having  been  carelessly  and  incorrectly 
made.  The  serious  feature  of  the  above  is  that 
the  survey  of  the  right  of  way  itself  is  not  posted 
or  marked  on  the  ground  in  any  way,  and  its 
existence  as  a  matter  of  record  depends  on  the 
spurious  ties  given  on  the  plan. 


MSCW-y/offs  OF  LAND 


yearaexperi. .,.  v  ..",?!nf  '™'  '  "^y  ^^^  that  3 
ha.  shown  me  ml VZuZ'T":" '''''""^'^ 
carefully  made  survey  oHanH  t  ?^^"™t  «nd 
way  right  of  waH^  ^n  in  ""'"J  ""  "  ™'- 
«^e  presented  for  Z^Z"^'^^' ^^  "  ?■<»  <>' 
the  land  ties  shown  Tth^Z' ^""^.°'"'  '""^  "' 

plan   have  beenTo^d   to  tT  "*""  ™^ 
grossly  so.  "^   "ncorrect-ofteu 

-horded  s;4S^^,:Z::^J'-^el,,.„ 

engineer  whose  whole  tat™^' f  ^      ^^ 
centred  in  the  aetu«l  ri„u.  ?  *''®  '^''^  « 

-thing  whateCrS  ttrr '^'"°^''- 
thereof.  *''^  ^^^  connections 

f  p^  r  fX":,rrr  -^'^ 

t'>e;rbein«nUi2:t,tr  ""*^'"^'''*<' 

a",  eventually,  hlTbeJTf''-  '"'"■'=''  '^l' 
cost.  In  recoBiir  f  ,'f.'^/*'^^^  «*  ^  immense 
of  the  plThS  7m  /I'"*  ''^  Gove^nents 
Alberta  havrp^L^:::'^^  '-'^^»'"—  and 
titles  ,.  raiLrr  IS        "  "'"^"«  *°  '-"" 

--.rveyo^frrii7w:rLtl;l: 


II 


26 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


r 

1* 

IP 


IP' 


How  regis- 
tered. 


authorized  surveyor  in  accordance  with  the  pro- 
visions of  the  Provincial  Surveys  Acts,  or,  in  the 
case  of  Manitoba,  the  Real  Property  Act,  have 
been  registered  in  the  proper  land  titles  office. 

19.  Since  railway  plans  are  plans  of  general 
record  that  affect  the  titles  to  all  lands  through 
which  the  railway  is  shown  to  pass,  they  are  regis- 
tered as  independent  instruments  and  should  be 
identified  in  descriptions  of  right  of  way  by  refer- 
ence to  the  registration  marks  of  the  plan. 

Owing  to  the  fact  that  railway  plans  are  de- 
posited in  land  titles  offices  as  matters  of  record 
with  a  view  to  their  future  use  as  bases  of  descrip- 
tion whenever  the  railway  company  shall  desire 
to  acquire  title  to  the  right  of  way  across  any 
particular  parcel  of  land  shown  thereon,  and  the 
further  fact  that  they  do  not  in  any  way  affect 
the  title  to  such  land  until  so  used,  it  is  frequently 
the  case  that  they  are  not  registered  in  the  com- 
mon register  of  instruments  which  have  a  direct 
and  immediate  effect  on  existing  land  titles,  but 
are  registered  in  a  special  register.  Before  under- 
taking to  draw  descriptions  of  railway  lands, 
therefore,  it  is  necessary  to  make  careful  enquiry 
as  to  the  correct  designation  of  the  railway  plan 
on  which  it  is  proposed  to  base  the  description. 


The  Use  of  Natural  Boundaries  in  Descriptions 
of  Land. 

20  Natural  boundaries  include  the  high  water 

er«iks  and  the  foot  or  the  top  of  hills. 

-!!.  In  the  case  of  lands  fronting  on  seas  lakp, 

or  cons,derable  rive,,  the  high  water  mark  i   the 

only  proper  boundary  to  adopt,  the  object  L  ng 

o  ensure  that  the  land  shall  include    he  Tter 

^.ntage  and  the  high  water  mark  being  the^nly 

allow  for  changes  m  the  actual  water  front  due 
to  encroachment  or  recession  of  the  water     Itl 

t7l  f  r     °""""'  '''"'^  '"  '"<">  «  way  as 
to  P«,clude  any  change  in  the  position  of  th^ 

boundary  whatever  the  water  may  do.    Any  2! 
vey  of  a  high  water  mark  should  be  made  only 
or  the  purpose  of  plotting  the  same  or  computing 
the  area  of  land  f^nting  on  it,  and  not  ,vith  any 
^ea  of  „g.dly  defining  the  boundary  of  tSZ' 
For  nstance,  let  us  consider  the  case  of  a  frac 
t.om.1  quarter  section  of  land,  containing  IW 
acres  and  f^nting  on  a  navigable  river  v^th^ 
swft  current  which  is  constantly  cuttmg  away  it. 
27 


Definition    of 
term  "nat- 
ural bound- 
aries." 
High  water 
mark  of  water 
frontage  only 
proper 
boundary  to 
adopt. 


H.  W.  M. 

should  not  be 
rigidly    de- 
fined by  sur- 
vey. 


^^zample. 


28 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


banks  on  the  one  hand  or  forming  new  laud  on 
the  other.  Let  us  assume  that  the  high  trater 
mark  was  accurately  determmed  at  the  time  of 
survey  and  that  the  said  high  water  mark,  tied 
in  by  offsets  froii.  properly  connected  traverse 
lines,  was  made  the  boundary  of  the  quarter  sec- 
tion as  a  surveyed  line.  First  let  us  suppose  that 
the  river  encroaches  on  the  quarter  section  and 
cuts  away  20  acres  from  it.  This  20  acres,  having 
become  part  of  the  bed  of  a  navigable  river,  re- 
verts to  the  Crown.  Thus  we  have  an  existing 
title  for  100  acres  of  land  while  there  are  only  80 
acres  within  its  described  boundaries.  Secondly 
let  us  suppose  that  the  action  of  the  river  causes 
20  acres  of  land  to  form  in  front  of  the  quarter 
section.  The  result  is  that,  while  the  original 
100  acres  are  undisturbed,  the  land  has  lost  its 
character  as  water  frontage  and,  with  it,  much  of 
its  value.  If  the  high  water  mark  of  the  river, 
without  any  attempt  at  surveyed  definition,  had 
been  used  in  the  description  the  title  would,  at 
different  times,  have  included  anywhere  from  80 
to  120  acres  and  the  real  intention  of  the  original 
grant  would,  at  all  times,  have  been  fulfilled. 

22.  Owing  to  the  fact  that  the  area  of  land 
frontmg  on  water  is  liable  to  actual  chnjige  in 
be  described   extent,  any  specific  acreage  given  in  a  description 
approxi-  qj'^  qj  ^  jj^g  jq^  g^f,},  [j^^j  should  always  be  quali- 
fied by  the  use  of  the   vord  "approximately." 


Area  of  Iscd 
froDting  oo 
water   should 


DESCRIPTrONS  OF  LAND  29 

For   instance,  yd   containing   approximately 
100  acres  be  the  ^me  more  or  less,"  or  "aid 

-;t:fm^,^rr-v«'----- 


more  or  ],.ss"  is  sufficient  to  cover  any  possible  ■">-'>' 

"" —     J        ■         -  less 


,  *"  ""*"^iciit  to  cover  any  possible  ™oreor 
vanat.on  of  acreage,  due  to  whatever  cau!^  On  'TJ  " 
reflect  on,  however  it  will  „„         .i  "'"^    '° 

'owever,  it  will  appear  that  the  words  "'^^ge. 

more  or  less"  are  only  intended  to  cover  anv 

of  the  area,  and  camiot  be  held  to  cover  any 
actual  change  in  the  area  itself 

IS,  as  has  been  said,  a  very  good  natural  boundary  ''«"  -»ter 
but  there  is  an  immense  amount  of  land  which  ""'" 
fronts  on  naarshes  that  intervene  between  that 

dubitably  water.  In  such  cases  it  is  often  im- 
possible to  define  the  high  water  mark  with  a^y 
degree  of  precision.  Even  so  it  is  all  the  more 
necessao^  to  use  the  term  "high  ..ater  mark"  and 
to  rely  on  its  flexibility  of  meaning  under  differ- 
ent  circumstances. 

Any  specification  o'  acreage  in  a  description  of 
such  a  parcel  should  be  :— 

(a).  Expressed  m  terms  giving  .ue  ereatest 
possible  latitude,  or  ^ 

(*).  Omitted  altogether,  or 
(«).  Described  as  containing  so  many  acres  of 


M   ap- 


\  l.vi,'      irtrnps 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


m 


Centre   of 
creek  as  nat- 
ural bound- 
ary. 


Good  in  cases 
where  *ind  is 
of  small  value. 


Why   creekg 
should  not  be 
adopted  as 
boundaries 
in  cities. 


high  land  "together  with  all  the  low  lying  land 
lying  within  the  above  described  boundaries,"^ 
of  which  "the  high  water  mark"  is  one. 

24.  The  centre  line  of  a  creek  may  be  a  very 
good  natural  boundary  in  cases  where  the  creek 
has  a  well  defined  channel  and  is  of  a  size  to  en- 
sure its  permanency. 

Even  a  small  creek  may  make  a  good  common 
boundary  between  two  parcels  of  agricultural 
lands  which  are  of  small  value,  and  there  may  be 
good  reasons  for  adopting  such  a  creek  as  a  bound- 
ary which,  while  contrary  to  the  best  principles 
of  good  conveyancing,  should  nevertheless  be 
taken  into  consideration.  For  instance,  take  the 
case  of  a  quarter  section  with  a  creel:  running 
diagonally  through  it  and  having  steep  rough 
banks.  From  the  pomt  of  view  of  working  the 
land  economically  the  two  halves  as  divided  by 
the  creek  would  have  a  very  much  greater  value 
than  if  they  were  divided  by  a  straight  line 
leaving  small  comers  of  arable  land  on  either  side 
of  the  creek. 

In  a  city  or  town,  however,  the  water  which 
flows  in  a  small  creek  will  eventually  be  absorbed 
into  the  municipal  drainage  system,  while  the 
bed  of  the  creek  will  become  diverted,  excavated, 
filled  in  or  otherwise  obliterated.  In  the  City  of 
Winnipeg  litigation  over  the  question  of  what 
had  been  the  true  position  of  a  small  creek  of  this 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


31 


kind  the  position  of  which  had  been  obliterated 
eo.t  hundreds  of  thousand,  of  dollars,  and  t  fe' 

eT^htr^'^^^'-'^^-''*"-^--: 

~h  ^""""^  '"*"''^"  '^°  parcels?  Id 

artSf:s::j-r^---- 

of  the.r  lack  of  definition  and  the  ^Ilwnr     ""'""^  "» 
ch^^  in  their  ^sition,  owing  to^Tof  Si^i  ^^. 
by  water    It  ,s  often  desirable  to  establish  the  fo^t 
or  top  of  a  hill  as  a  la^d  boundary,  and  th.s  Z^ 

ir^l""'"^^  *"  '""^  ""*  ^-''  a^lioundaXuI 
n  all  cases  be  established  as  a  surveyed  J   Z 

nstance,  the  mining  regulations  which  were  in  E«m  . 

orce  m  the  Klondike  gold  mining  camp  d 2^         * 
the  most  valuable  class  of  claims-creek  da  ms- 
as  extendmg  from  "base  to  base  of  hill."  Tthe 

o""  m  T  "r"'  '''""''''°°'  -'^  -"''*  -"^^  a 
one  t,me  have  been  a  sharply  defined  base  of  hill 
i  generally  overlaid  with  from  10  to  60  feet  o 
shde  matter,  „nd  as,  moreover,  the  values  in 
voh^ed  were  often  enormous,  the  ^suItT^  1 
endle^  succession  of  law  suits  on  the  mterp^t!^ 
.on  of  th,s  particular  definition.  The  reasoTwhy 
the  law  smu  were  endless  wa.  that,  owing  t»  the 


32 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


impoasibility  of  applying  the  theoretical  provi- 
sions  of  the  regulations  to  the  actual  conditions, 
each  case  had  to  be  decided  on  its  own  merits  and 
it  was  not  possible  to  create  precedents.  In  their 
efforts  to  render  equitable  decisions  the  Courts 
were  obliged  to  listen  to,  and  give  consideration 
to,  fictitious  arguments  as  to  where  the  base  of 
the  hill  ought  to  be,  rather  than  where  it  actually 
was.* 
Example.  To  take  a  more  ordinary  case:  Some  years  ago 

the  Northerly  40  acres  of  Lot  27  in  the  Edmonton 
Settlement  was  sold,  described  as  follows: — "All 
that  portion  of  Lot  35  in  the  Edmonton  Settle- 
ment in  the  Province  of  Alberta  containing  40 
acres  more  or  less  and  lying  to  the  North  of  a 
line  drawn  parallel  to  and  distant  three  feet 
Southerly  from  the  high  bank  of  the  North  Sas- 
katchewan River."  As  the  bank  referred  to  is  by 
no  means  sharply  defined  it  is  di6Scult  to  imagine 
a  more  perfect  example  of  a  bad  description. 
After  a  time  the  owners  of  the  Southerly  portion 
subdivided  their  land  and  the  siu^eyor  employed 
defined  the  above  boundary  by  a  straight  line 


*  I  distinctly  remember  hearing  a  well  known  member 
of  the  Dominion  Geological  Survey  give  evidence  to 
the  effect  that,  in  his  opinion,  the  "  base  of  the  MU  "  wa« 
half  way  up  an  adjacent  mountain,  basing  his  opinioii 
on  the  probable  position  of  said  base  of  hill  during  the 
Pliocene  Period. 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  33 

^^r^^r*"*"*'°°  ""'"  "">  description  wa! 
mteT,reted  by  an  order  of  the  Court   after^ 
mterested  pe,^„«  fa^d  been  heard  in  ^he^  te 
In  th.s  oaae,  tl  erefoa,  a  description  baldTn  the 
position  of  a  hill  top  was  fnimL    v.    •      ^ 
to  definp  fl,.  j1  T  "^  *°  '^  insufficient 

to  define  the  boundarjr  of  the  land  described  fnr 
puiposes  of  legal  occupation 


Object  of  us- 
ing words 
"more  or 
less." 


Surveying 
only  B  rela- 
tively  exact 
science. 


The  Use  of  the  Words  "  More  or  tess  "  in 
Descriptions  of  Land. 

26.  The  words  "more  or  less,"  when  applied 
to  a  distance  given  for  one  of  the  courses  in  a 
description  of  land,  are  intended  to  cover  any 
variation  in  such  distance  from  that  given  which 
may  appear  on  re-measurement  or  re-calculation. 

Theoretically  speaking  surveying  is  an  exact 
science,  but  in  practice  it  is  only  relatively  so. 
Eleciiiits  of  personal  exactitude  and  skill  in  mak- 
ing ,j.veys,  variations  of  temperature,  slight 
inherent  errors  in  the  manufacture  of  measurmg 
tapes  and  differences  caused  by  variation  of  ten- 
sion in  using  them,  all  have  their  effect  in  making 
field  surveying  only  relatively  accurate.  In 
describing  a  course  between  two  actual  points  on 
the  ground  there  can,  of  course,  be  only  one  cor- 
rect distance,  but  the  conveyancer  is  not  justified 
in  assuming  that  the  distance  which  the  surveyor 
measured  between  these  two  points,  and  put  on 
his  plan,  is  exactly  correct.  Nevertheless  it  is 
the  actual  distance  between  the  two  points  that 
he  desires  to  describe,  and  he  is  not  concerned  that 
the  distance  given  in  the  conveyance  does  not 
agree  with  such  actual  distance  within  the  limits 
34 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


35 


^i't™"'*'^'""^^-    "»- the  use  of  the 
thetn  •"  '"'"■"    ^°'  '"«'""'«.  let  us  take 

the  followmg  very  simple  example —CoZ,! 
;n«  at  a  post  planted;  Thence  due  ^^7^  ^ 
feetmoreorlesstoani^npostandmord"  '       ^* 
In  the  above  example  suppose  the  surveyor  to 

tirti:;: ;  r  ^™'  *"  "'"'■^  »'>«  <^'^t--  ls 

1 1?  .  "'  ''  "  ^"'"y  1««  feet.    WhaUs 

1,000  feet  of  land,  or  the  actual  distance  betw^' 
But  IT'-  ^^'*''-^t-'''i«tanceofl^:r 

evidence  m  the  description  as  to  the  lenrth  of 

were  omitted  would  remain  miaccountable. 

given  J  a^^eiittr  ^  ""^^^"^  *^*'"-  "^  -=" 
actual  disttrS   '  :J  "^rS^*^^  " -■■  ""^ 
^the^dshouldbe^ualiC^trSS^rr 

deaTt'  Sth^'  ^''^  P'*'''^«  ^■'"'"^  ^«  haveE«n.pu 
dealt  with  descriptions  of  surveyed  parcels  of 

land,  but  parcels  of  ia.d  which  havenot'SsI 


I: 


36 


DESCHIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


veyed  are  frequently  described  by  metes  and 
bounds,  and  referred  to  some  more  or  less  remote 
survey.  The  following  may  l)e  taken  as  an  ex- 
ample:—"Commencing  at  a  point  on  the  South- 
erly boundary  of  the  South  East  quarter  of  Sec- 
tion 20  in  Township  46,  Range  23  West  of  the 
Fourth  Meridian  distant  660  feet  Westerly  from 
the  South  East  comer  thereof;  Thence  Northerly 
and  parallel  to  the  Easterly  boundary  of  said 
quarter  section  660  feet;  Thence  Westerly  and 
parallel  to  said  Southerly  boundary  660  feet; 
Thence  Southerly  and  parallel  to  said  Easterly 
boundary  6CiO  feet;  Thence  Easterly  and  following 
said  Southerly  boundary  660  feet  to  the  point  of 
commencement." 

To  qualify  any  of  the  distances  given  in  the 
above  example  by  the  words  "more  or  less" 
would  be  to  render  the  description  indeterminate 
and  absurd.  All  the  said  distances,  being  purely 
theoretic  and  not  subject  to  discrepancies  of 
survey  on  the  ground,  are,  and  must  be,  as  exact 
as  the  science  of  mathematics  itself. 

w^.'^'mo™  ^"  '^^^  """'^  '^'  *''«^f<""e'  tl^t  "  Every  distance 
or  leM"  mS"  P^«"  ^  "  description  of  land  which  is  not  sub- 
not  be  applied  ject  to  the  position  of  points  established  on  the 

to  uiataucea.     _         j  .  • 

ground  must  never  be  qualified  by  the  words 

"more  or  less." 


««>ns  of  land.  ^ 

such  boundaries  fmm  7.,  ^^  d-rection  of  »'  bc.nn,.  ,„ 

starting  point'L'  Zi^Z^'^'^'l'  '^"''^'         """"^ 
through  such  point   rlehir"'"" ''''"'"« 
they  may  beared  to  '  '"'"*''"  "^ 

call  lei^th^T'  1'  *'^-°^°'''-    ^-'^^  "--"^ 

S-ve  more  occasion  for  er^^CT    "^r  ""* 

■,,     --'t^the^rttranTr 
>.,:  ^t'yhaveto   interpret  it,  tha^  J 

tion  by  beaS?'n^"'"''*'"='"''*'""^°fdescrip. 
that  th'e  ^:Zio^7Z  Z  ''-'l  ""^'-"'^^ 


37 


which 


38 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


the  North  Pole  may  be  regarded  as  the  positive 
end  and  the  zenith  of  the  point  descriljed  as  tlic 
negative  end.  This  tends  to  the  utmost  facility 
and  lucidity  of  description  because  each  Ime  of 
which  the  bearing  is  given  in  a  description  repre- 
sents a  definite  and  positive  direction  to  the 
mind's  eye  of  any  person  reading  such  description. 
Example.  As  an  instance  of  this,  and  in  order  to  show  how 

difficult  it  is  to  make  a  clear  description  in  which 
the  method  of  angular  measurement  is  used  to 
define  the  direction  of  the  various  courses,  the 
two  following  examples  are  given,  in  which  the 
same  parcel  of  land  is  described,  (a)  by  employ- 
ing bearings  to  define  the  direction  of  its  bound- 
aries, and  (6)  by  employing  angular  measure- 
ments for  the  same  purpose.  The  preamble,  which 
is  the  same  for  both  descriptions,  is  as  follows: — 

"All  that  portion  of  the  North  East  quarter  of 
Section  23  in  Township  46,  Range  23  West  of  the 
4th  Meridian  in  the  Province  of  Alberta  as  the 
same  is  shown  on  a  plan  of  survey  of  the  said 
Township  approved  and  confirmed  by  the  Sur- 
veyor General  of  Canada  at  Ottawa  on  the  4th 
day  of  May,  1894,  which  plan  is  of  record  in  the 
Department  of  the  Interior  and  also  in  the  Land 
Titles  Office  for  the  North  Alberta  Land  Rc^s- 
tration  District  which  may  be  more  particularly 
known  and  described  as  follows: — " 

(o).  "Commencing  at  an  iron  post  planted  at  a 


DESCHIPTIONS  OF  LAUD 


39 


distance  of  19m  „i  •  "  <o    ^o    West  a 

■*">-«:  oi  i^.uo  chains  more  or  )p<i«  t/>  „„  • 

Planted!  Cf  I'  7Z  l^ll  ^"  '""^  ^^'^ 
Ipso  t«  »_  ■  ^"•"*'  chams  mora  or 

i'  eL    9rr'  '""'*^''-  '''''"-  North's" 
«^m^?ncemL\r  T?  "  '^"  *^  '"«  P"*"'  of 

-^.o.re.onzro;~rc;:; 

(-ommencing  at  the  North  v    <.         '""ows.— 
d-tu«  of  10.73  .b,l«.  „„„„,,„  '"1,7    • 


40 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


Quadrant 
bearings 
■honld  be 


angle  to  the  left  with  the  last  described  course  of 
78°  38'  a  distance  of  14.00  chains  more  or  less 
to  an  iron  post  planted;  Thence  in  a  straight  line 
making  a  deflection  angle  to  the  left  with  the  last 
described  course  of  118°  02'  a  distance  of  16.00 
chains  more  or  less  to  an  iron  post  planted;  Thence 
in  a  straight  line  making  a  deflection  angle  to  the 
left  with  the  last  described  course  of  76°  54'  a 
distance  of  9.18  chains  more  or  less  to  the  point  of 
commencement,  the  whole  containing  three  and 
eighty-hundredths  acres  be  the  same  more  or  less 
and  as  shown  colored  red  on  the  plan  of  survey 
attached  hereto." 

32.  For  general  use  m  descriptions  of  land  it  is 
better  to  adopt  quadrant  bearings  than  bear- 
mgs  from  the  North  meridian  from  0°  to  360° 
through  East,  South  and  West  and  back  to  North 
again.  The  reason  for  this  is  simply  that  quad- 
rant bearings  are  more  commonly  understood 
than  the  other,  and  descriptions  should  always 
be  made  as  simple  and  universally  mtelligible  as 
possible. 

33.  In  theory,  all  bearings  given  in  a  description 
of  land  as  representing  the  actual  direction  of  a 
line  between  two  points  established  on  the  ground 
should  be  qualified  by  the  words  "more  or  less," 
applied  to  the  number  of  degrees  and  minutes 
given  in  the  bearing,  in  order  to  allow  for  possible 
discrepancies  of  survey  and  for  the  same  reasons 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


41 


given  m  section  24  havin<r  ^e 

cation  of  distances  l^*"       """^  *°  ^''^  '''"^'6' 

instance  "OoZ  ""^  '""'""  Po"*'-    For 

"  »i    od  more  or  less  Wp»t  i  nnn  t    ^ 
orlesstoani„.npostandmo^d .-'        "*  """ 

forthismaybefoLt   h  T   "^^  '"''  *''«  ^"^-n  "1,"""" 
icai  bearinr!l!?.''"*''^f''^*thatanaat,onona.  "^'"'^._ 


cannot  h»  ^„„.-j-__7        *  '^^^''"Pt'on  of  land.  ti<.nofiu«. 


cannot  be  tnsidLd  to  ah   f:?"""  "'  ''^•^■ 
di.-tionofthelillstHSKnrr'"'^ 

without'^«''rre^^''^-™'^'^^ven 

-eridian;  it  thez^fore  f^ ^  ^eCi  T'""'" 
of  the  line  unWs  it  ;  ''^  direction 

the  bearj;?!.!* ''  rT^"^  "^  '^P^^^  that 

Poi»tof™rjiS  whit  ""'"""  °'  *•>« 

'"-.-aruie.jSedTtrrnr^ 

observation  f  J  thttinTV'^*  ^"'^"-* 
■-veals  the  fact  that  th^a  tu!,  r""""""'"' 
^aid  line  is  North  45°  05' L!fn  ""*  °^  *''« 
a  fact  that  the  d^  Z\,  J  -nevertheless 
00'  East  if  mf^r^Tr  .V  ""  '^  N°'^''  *5° 


42 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


Rule  when 
bearings 
given  in  de- 
BCriptions 
eliould  be 
qualified. 


Showing  how 
bearings  may 
be  referred  to 
special 
meridian. 


from  those  shown  on  the  departmental  plans  of 
the  original  surveys,  rather  than  from  observa- 
tion. Further,  the  bearings  shown  on  such  de- 
partmental plans,  with  the  exception  of  those 
shown  for  the  central  meridian  of  townships,  are 
not  themselves  true  astronomical  bearings,  but 
are  referred,  in  accordance  with  a  convention  of 
the  Dominion  Lands  Surveys  Act,  to  said  central 
meridian.  It  follows  that  the  bearings  given  in 
descriptions  of  land  would  hardly  ever  bear  the 
test  of  verification  by  observation,  although  most 
of  them  would  be  shown  to  be  approximately 
correct,  and  that  the  whole  question  of  the  use 
of  bearings  in  descriptions  is  established  on  a  less 
accurate  basis  of  survey  than  that  of  the  use  of 
distances. 

34.  In  a  description  of  land  in  which  the  bear- 
ing given  for  any  line,  which  is  also  defined  » i 
lying  between  two  pomts  established  on  the 
ground  is  referred  to  a  specified  meridian,  the 
direction  of  the  Ime  is  defined  in  two  wa^  and 
such  bearing  should  be  qualified  by  the  use  of 
the  words  "more  or  less"  applied  to  the  number  of 
degrees  and  minutes  given  in  the  bearing. 

35.  The  bearings  of  lines  of  survey  may  be  re- 
ferred to  c  specified  meridian  m  descriptions  of 
land  in  various  ways,  of  which  two  are  shown  in 
the  following  examples,  for  both  of  which  the 
following  preamble  will  serve; — 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


43 

the  4th  Meridian  tt    t'  ^"^^  ^^  ^««'  "^ 
ToC^ip  iri^"  "  P'""  "'  ^""-y  of  the  said 

Ti.:.s  Office fo        Jort  llbei   r  ".  T  ^^"^ 
tion  Di,trict  whi!l,  .       "  ^"'^  ^^S'^tra- 

'--anre.rd^^^;--  -"^"--^ 

-odorless West^XttLfT'J'"  **' 
of  said  quarter  seetiZT  .^  ^'^^^"^"^^^ 

North  a  d^ee  o  T  0^>r  '  ''"^^  "'  '^"^ 
i^n  post  pil°'  ''"^  '"*  ■"<"-  °'  'e-  to  an 

I  feel  thatVhe  X«"  7  ''?''  ''*''''"^'' 
logical  and  mmvoidabrd.*  »■  '''"™  ^*  '^  » 
of  description,  itUone  It  "  '"  "">  *'"'<"^' 

in  common  pract  ce  a„d  r  /  ^7/"''^  "''^"■'■<' 

having  been^„i\tnb;:nv^B:1''rr 
aminers  or  Master  of  TiZ.  ^  "^  °'  ^''- 

West  which  bearing  aaid  aU  other 


Elample. 


44 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


When  proper 
to  describe 
land  aa 
'■  North 
halt"  o( 
original 
parcel. 


When  im- 
proper  to 
describe  land 
as   "North 
half,"  etc. 


Technical  def- 
inition of 
'■North  half" 
of  a  parcel  of 
land. 


bearings  given  in  the  following  description  are 
derived  from  the  bearing  of  the  Easterly  boundary 
of  said  quarter  section  as  the  same  is  shown  on 
said  plan  a  distance  of  1,000  feet  more  or  less  to 
an  iron  post  planted." 

36.  It  is  very  usual  in  common  practice  to  find 
land  described  as  "the  North  half,"  or  "the  East 
half,"  of  a  parcel  of  land.  When  the  boundaries 
of  the  parcel  are  shown  on  the  plan  as  being  due 
North,  South,  East  and  West,  and  the  boundaries 
on  the  ground  may  reasonably  be  assumed  to  be 
very  nearly  so,  there  can  be  no  objection  to  this 
practice,  except  that  such  a  description  ia  always 
subject  to  any  discrepancy  on  the  ground  in  the 
survey  referred  to,  and,  for  that  reason,  a  descrip- 
tion by  metes  and  bounds  is  generally  preferable. 

In  a  great  many  cases,  however,  the  boundaries 
of  such  a  parcel  are  not  due  North,  South,  East 
or  West  and  then  the  description  fails  to  express 
the  true  intent  of  the  conveyance  in  ninety-nine 
cases  out  of  a  hundred,  since  there  can  be  no 
doubt,  as  a  matter  of  technical  description,  that 
the  North  half  of  a  parcel  of  lajid  is  all  that  part 
of  such  parcel,  being  one  half  of  the  total  area 
thereof,  which  lies  to  the  North  of  a  due  East  and 
West  line  bisecting  such  parcel,  whereas,  in  al- 
most all  cases,  the  intention  is  to  convey  a  part 
which  shall  be  bounded  on  the  South  by  a  line 
drawn  parallel  to  and  equidistant  from  the  North- 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


45 


eriy  and  Southerly  boundariea  thereof     Thi,  • 
tin™   in  ~  .  ""u  mere  are  thousands  of 

01  the  conveyancer  nnW  »i,„  ■  .       *^''™<'e 

lest  that  It  IS  accepted  without  question  hvT 
parties  affected   or   ;(  .  j-      /'"''^"°°  °y  the 

•j7.  The  rule  is "Th  f 

parcel  of  land  sho,,!,)        "V^  °f™y  original  Rule  when 
North    LT^  t  ^'''"'  ""^  described  as  the  '""  "■""H 

JMorth,  South,  East  or  West  nart    p,  tl,  °'"  >«  "^ 

and  siSr^?-^  "-  "-  ^-'>  ^ 
38.  It  IS  also  quite  common  to  find  land  rf».  r 

S  ttenr  "T  "''"'■"^'  ™'=''  a  description 
us^  tZ  Z  "  ""'  """''«'•  These  words! 
used  m  the  above  sense,  should  never  be  used  in 
My  description  of  land.  «■■  oe  used  m 


f  4 


46 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


MsBnetio 
bearings 
never  to  be 
used  in  de- 
Bcriptions  of 
land. 


11!^ 


39.  Magnetic  bearings,  or  bearings  that  are 
derived  from  the  Magnetic  North  Pole,  should 
never,  under  any  circumstances,  be  used  in  de- 
scriptions of  land.  One  reason  for  this  is  that  such 
bearings  are  incapable  of  being  determined  with 
a  sufficient  degree  of  precision — say  w  ithin  fifteen 
muiutes.  The  chief  reason,  however,  is  that,  for 
causes  which  have  never  been  scientifically  deter- 
mined, the  Magnetic  North  Pole  is  not  constant, 
but  varies  from  day  to  day  and  from  year  to  year. 
This  variation  has  been  recorded  at  Paris  in 
France  as  extending  from  11}^  degrees  East  of 
true  North  m  the  year  1580  to  22)^  degrees  West 
of  true  North  in  the  year  1814 — a  total  variation 
of  34  degrees.*  It  follows  that  bearings  derived 
from  the  Magnetic  North  Pole  vary  accordingly, 
so  that  a  line,  the  magnetic  bearing  of  which  was 
determined  as  being  Magnetic  North  10  degrees 
East  in  the  year  1800,  might  quite  possibly  have 
a  bearing  of  Magnetic  North  5  degrees  West  in 
the  year  1900.  That  is  to  say  that,  if  it  was  at- 
tempted to  re-establish  the  said  line  on  the  ground 
in  tht  year  1900  from  a  known  point  of  commence- 
ment and  in  reference  to  the  magnetic  bearing 
recorded  for  it  in  the  year  1800,  it  would  be  15 
degrees  in  direction  out  of  place.  Therefore, 
since  the  prmcipal  object  of  a  description  of  land 
Is  to  establish  a  record  from  which  it  shall  be 

*  GUlespies'  Treatise  on  Surveying.    Article  278. 


DESCBIPTIONS  OF  LAND  47 

poMible  to  identify  the  described  parcel  on  the 
ground  It  will  be  seen  that  a  description  of  land 
m  which  the  direction  of  the  various  couraes 
were  referred  to  the  Magnetic  North  Pole  would 
fail  to  fulfil  its  purpose. 


Description  of  the  Remainder  of  an  Original 
Parcel  of  Land 


DefiDition   of 
tenn  "Orig- 
inal parcel  ol 
lud.". 


Definition   of 
term  "re- 
mainder." 

A  remainder 
subject  to  all 
parts    pre- 
vioualy  con- 
veyed. 


Rul«  for  de- 
scription of  a 
remainder. 


Ohjeotof 
rule. 


40.  "An  original  parcel  of  land"  may  be  de- 
fined, for  the  purposes  of  this  article,  as  any  sur- 
veyed parcel  of  land,  considered  as  an  undivided 
whole,  for  which  a  separate  title  exists. 

The  remainder  of  an  original  parcel  of  land  is 
that  part  vhich  remains  after  one  or  more  parto 
have  been  previously  conveyed  by  description. 

41.  The  description  of  a  remainder  depends 
not  only  on  the  original  title  to  the  whole  of  the 
parcel  of  which  it  is  a  part,  but  must  also  be  made 
subject  to  the  description  contained  in  any  exist- 
ing title  for  the  part,  or  parts,  previously  conveyed, 
and  the  rule  may  be  stated  as  follows:— "The 
description  of  a  remainder  of  any  parcel  of  land 
must  be  expressed  in  terms  of  the  remainder,  in 
such  a  way  as  to  be  subject  to  the  description 
contained  in  any  existing  title  for  a  part,  or  parts, 
of  said  parcel  which  has  been  previously  con- 
veyed." 

42.  The  object  of  the  above  rule  is  to  prevent 
confliction  of  description  and  title  in  conveying 
a  nu  «r  of  small  parcels  of  land  by  description 
out  of  what  has  been  defined  in  section  38  as  an 

48 


DBSCRIPTlOm  OF  LA\D  49 

original  parcel  of  land.  Such  confliction  may  as- 
sume the  form  of  overlappmg  of  adjacent  bound- 
anes,  or  the  creation  of  small  strips  of  land  be- 
tween such  boundaries.  Itisgererallycausedby 
the  acceptance  as  absolutely  correct  of  the  various 
measurements  shown  on  plans  of  survey  of  the 
property,  without  allowing  for  the  discrepancies 
to  which  all  surveys  are  subject. 

This  discrepancy  of  survey,  and  of  plans  of  Dbcrep„d« 
survey,  has  already  been  referred  to  in  section  24  °'  """■^y 
Its  Uck  of  absolute  accuracy  constitutes  an  in-  .T„te,o.c- 
separable  feature  of  the  practice  of  surveying,  and  "'"'« '-  wH'- 
is  a  fact  which  must  be  accepted  as  such  by  all  «'  ^'^^ 
who  have  to  describe  land,  and  in  the  knowledge    '"^' 
and  constant  consideration  of  which  they  must 
proceed.    Its  importance  in  relation  to  the  de- 
scnption  of  land  can  scarcely  be  over-estimated 
or  emphasized   too  strongly.   For    instance,   a 
quarter  section  of  land  may  be  shown  on  a  de-  Example, 
partmental  plan  to  be  40.00  chams  square,  and 
to  contain  160  acres.    We  will  suppose  that  the 
owner  first  sells  "the  South  half"  of  said  quarter 
section  "containing  80  acres  more  or  less"  and 
subsequently  proposes  to  sell  the  remamder.    In 
this  case  the  remainder  can  only  properly  be 
described  as  "the  North  half  of  said  quarter 
section,  containing  80  acres  be  the  same  more 
or  less"  smce  this  is  the  only  possible  form  of 
positive  description  that  cannot  conflict  with 


60 


DESCRIPTIO\S  OF  LAND 


the  description  of  the  South  half  previously 
conveyf-d.  But  quite  frequently  the  purchaser 
demands  a  transfer  for  "the  North  20.00  chains 
of  said  quarter  section  containing  80  acres  be  the 
same  more  or  less."  Such  a  transfer  generally  is, 
and  always  should  be,  returned  to  him  by  the 
registrar  of  the  district  registry  office  as  being 
unregisterable.  Why?  Because,  in  99  cases  out 
of  100,  the  measurements  of  the  quarter  section 
will  not  be  found  to  be  on  the  ground  exactly  as 
they  are  shown  on  the  departmental  plan.  First 
let  us  suppose  that  the  North  and  South  bound- 
aries are  each  exactly  40.00  chains  in  length,  but 
that  the  meridian  outlines  are  each  40.50  in  length. 
Then  the  first  parcel  sold — namely  the  South 
half — was  40.00  by  40.25  chains  and  contained 
81  acres, — the  additional  acres  being  accounted 
for  in  the  original  description  by  the  use  of  the 
words  "more  or  less."  If  then  the  second  transfer, 
describing  the  remainder  as  the  North  20.00 
chains,  be  accepted  by  the  registrar,  there  is  left 
a  strip  of  25  links  by  40.00  chains,  containing  1 
acre  of  land,  still  left  in  the  original  title.  But  the 
registrar  has  no  other  source  of  knowledge  in 
regard  to  the  actual  size  of  the  quarter  section 
than  that  supplied  by  the  departmental  plan. 
If,  therefore,  he  chooses  to  accept  the  second 
transfer  for  registration,  he  can  only  do  so  on  the 
assumption  that  the  measurements  shown  on 


DESCRlPTlOm  OF  LAND  51 

.uch  plan  are  absolutely  correct,  in  which  case  the 
two  transfers  taken  together,  include  all  the  land 
dcscnbed  m   he  original  title,  and  the  said  title 
«cance  led  u.  full  accordingly.     But  we  have 
seen  that  there  .s  still  one  acre  of  land  which  is 
no  included  m  either  of  the  transfe.^  and  should 
rtill  appear  in  the  name,  and  on  the  title,  of  the 
ong,„al  owner.    The  result  is  that  the  title  to  the 
said  1  acre  becomes  latent  for  the  time  being  and 
|s  very  often  lost  altogether  to  the  original  owner, 
^cause  the  owners  of  the  "South  half"  and  "the 

fectly  good  faith,  occupy  their  respective  proper- 
ties  on  either  side  of  a  common  fence  and  thus 
»  tmie,  acquire  a  title  through  undisturbed 
possession. 

Secondly  let  us  suppose  that  the  North  and 
South  boundaries  are  still  40.00  chains  m  length 
but  that  the  meridian  boundaries  are  each  39  50 
chams  m  length,-or  SO  links  short.  Then  the 
fi:«t  parcel  sold  was  40.00  by  19.75  chams  and 
contamed  79  acres.  The  second  transfer,  describ- 
ing the  remainder  as  the  North  20.00  chains  m- 
cludes  the  North  25  links  of  the  firat  described 
parcel,  or  acre  of  land  for  which  the  transferrer 
tias  no  title  and,  in  respect  to  which  the  title 
subsequently  issued  to  the  transferee  is  spurious- 

cif7.1  ^^k"  f^""'"  '''  "'  "^^^  *«  "^  of  "'  E.-mpl,. 
city  lot  SO  by  100  feet  of  which  the  boundaries 


62 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


are  due  North  and  South  or  East  and  West,  and 
of  which  a  part  has  been  already  conveyed  by 
description  as  "the  West  15  feet  of  said  lot." 
Since  the  actual  size  of  the  above  lot  is  determined 
by  the  position  of  its  comer  posts,  and  it  may  be 
either  49  or  51  feet  wide  on  the  ground  in  fact, 
although  the  plan  of  subdivision  shows  it  to  be 
exactly  50  feet,  it  would  be  incorrect  to  describe 
the  remainder  as  "the  East  35  feet  of  said  lot" 
for  the  same  reasons  given  in  the  preceding  ex- 
ample. There  are  two  ways  of  describing  the 
remainder  correctly; — 

(a).  To  describe  it  aa  the  whole  of  said  lot 
saving  and  excepting  thereout  and  therefrom  the 
West  15  feet  thereof. 

(6) .  To  describe  it  by  metes  and  bounds  in  such 
a  way  as  to  exclude  the  West  15  feet;  for  in- 
stance— 

"Commencmg  at  a  point  on  the  South  bound- 
ary of  said  lot  distant  15  feet  Easterly  from  the 
South  West  comer  thereof;  Thence  North  and 
parallel  to  the  West  boundary  of  said  lot  100 
feet  more  or  less  to  the  North  boundary  thereof; 
Thence  East  35  feet  more  or  less  to  the  North 
East  comer  of  said  lot;  Thence  South  along  the 
East  boundary  of  said  lot  100  feet  more  or  less 
to  the  South  East  comer  thereof;  Thence  West 
35  feet  more  or  less  to  the  point  of  commence- 
ment," or, 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  53 

"Commencing  at  the  North  F«=* 

'"yiaereof,  Thence  East,  etc.,  etc." 


Definition  of 
a  description 
by  exception. 


Description 
by   exception 
a  negative 
description. 


How  de- 
scriptions by 
exception 
occur. 


Description  by  Exception  of  Previously  Con- 
veyed Parcels. 

43.  A  description  by  exception  is  one  of  an 
original  parcel  of  land,  out  of  which  a  part,  or 
parts,  have  been  conveyed  by  description,  ex- 
pressed in  terms  of  the  exceptions  instead  of  in 
terms  of  the  remainder. 

44.  From  the  above  definition  it  follows  that  a 
description  by  exception  is  a  negative  description 
as  opposed  to  a  positive  or  direct  description  of 
the  land  to  be  conveyed,  and  on  this  accomit  is 
not  so  good  a  form  of  description  as  a  description 
by  remainder.  At  the  same  time  the  use  of 
descriptions  by  exception  is  unavoidable  in  some 
cases  and  allowable  in  many  others. 

45.  The  creation  of  descriptions  by  exception 
occurs  through  the  conveyance  of  small  parcels 
which  may  make  the  remainder  of  the  origmal 
parcel  difficult  to  describe  directly,  or,  at  least, 
makes  it  easier  to  describe  by  exception.  For 
instance,  suppose  the  case  of  a  quarter  section  of 
land  from  which  a  parcel  has  been  conveyed  by 
description  that  lies  entirely  within  the  boundaries 
of  such  quarter  section,  tlie  parcel  being  con- 
nected with  one  of  said  boundaries  by  description 

M 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


55 


of  a  survey  tie.  This  is  a  case  in  which  it  is  im- 
possible to  describe  the  remuinder  otherwise  than 
in  terms  of  the  excepted  parcel. 

46.  It  will  often  be  found  that  a  parcel  of  land 
has  been  conveyed  out  of  an  original  title  by  a 
description  which  is  so  loosely  worded  and  faulty 
as  to  be  ambiguous.  In  all  such  cases  it  is  most 
desirable  that  the  remainder  should  be  described 
by  exception,  since  any  ambiguity  in  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  part  conveyed  must  necessarily  be 
communicated  to  the  remamder  thus  created. 

It  is  true  that  to  describe  the  remainder  by  Fault,  in  ti- 
exception  perpetuates  any  ambiguity  which  may  *'«»  ™nnot  be 
exist,  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  duty  bv"",!^"!^ 
01  the  conveyancer  is  to  describe  that  which  ac-  description  of 
tually  remams,  and  if  such  remainder  includes  ^ 
any  ambiguity  of  title  such  ambiguity  must  be 
accounted  for  in  the  description. 

In  some  cases  a  conveyancer  will  deliberately 
attempt,  by  precise  description  of  the  remainder, 
to  rectify  the  ambiguity  of  title  caused  by  a 
faulty  description  contained  m  a  prior  conveyance. 
Such  an  attempt  is  illogical  and  futile,  because, 
if  the  ambiguity  is  of  real  effect  it  cannot  be 
affected  by  the  registration  of  an  instrument 
subsequent  to  that  of  the  one  which  caused  it. 

47.  The  title  to  an  original  parcel  of  land,  out 
of  which  a  great  many  small  parcels  have  been 
conveyed  by  description  freq-jcntly  becomes  ob- 


remaincler. 


66 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


TitiM  by  ei-  scure,  and  is  only  intelligible  after  many  hours  of 


ception  of 
previously 
conveyed 
parcelB  often 
become  ob- 
scure. 


Example. 


ii'i 


careful  work  and  plotting  each  of  said  small  par- 
cels, as  they  are  described,  on  a  plan  of  the  whole. 

This  condition  becomes  greatly  aggravated 
when  the  practice  of  describing  exceptions  from  a 
title  by  reference  to  the  number  of  the  Certificate 
of  Title  issued  for  such  exceptions  is  permitted 
by  the  Real  Property  Act  of  the  province  in  which 
such  land  occurs. 

Take  :is  un  example  the  following  description: — 
"  The  whole  of  section  4  m  Township  14,  Range  12 
West  of  the  4th  Meridian  as  the  same  is  shown  on 
a  plan  of  survey  of  the  said  township  approved 
and  confirmed  by  the  Surveyor  General  of  Canada 
at  Ottawa  on  the  17th  day  of  January,  1907, 
which  plan  is  of  record  in  the  Department  of  the 
Interior  at  Ottawa  and  m  the  Land  Titles  Office 
for  the  South  Alberta  Land  Registration  District 
saving  and  exceptmg  thereout  and  therefrom: — 
Firstly: — All  those  portions  of  said  section 
comprised  within  the  limits  of  a  plan  of  subdivi- 
sion registered  in  said  Land  Titles  Office  under 
number  2066  in  Day  Book  'M2'; 

Secondly: — ^A  parcel  of  land  containing  One 
(1)  and  77-100  acres  be  the  same  more  or  less 
being  part  of  a  public  roadway  as  shown  on  a  plan 
of  survey  of  said  roadway  registered  in  said  Land 
Titles  Office  under  Road  Plan  number  279  and  as 
described  in  Certificate  of  Title  14  Y.6. 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


57 


Thirdly:— All  that  portion  containing  17  and 
36-100  acres  be  the  same  more  or  less  taken  for 
the  Right  of  Way  of  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway 
as  shown  en  a  plan  of  said  railway  filed  in  said 
Land  Titles  Office  under  Railway  Plan  Number 
738  and  as  described  in  Certificate  of  Title  117 
K.7. 

"Fourthly:— All  that  portion  of  said  section 
described  in  Certificate  of  Title  202  N.ll,"  and 
so  on  until,  in  some  cases,  there  are  as  miny  as 
twenty  exceptions  to  which  the  original  parcel 
referred  to  in  the  Certificate  of  Title  is  sub- 
ject. 

Such  a  description  as  the  one  contained  m  the 
above  Certificate  of  Title  is  merely  negative  m 
effect.  Instead  of  being  a  sufficient,  complete  and 
self  contained  description  of  the  land  included  in 
the  title,  it  depends  for  its  validity  on  evidence 
contamed  m  a  number  of  instruments  outside  of 
Itself.  It  defines  the  position  and  limits  of  the 
original  parcel  but,  regarded  as  an  individual 
document,  conveys  no  assurance  that  any  of  such 
parcel  is  left  after  all  the  various  exceptions  have 
been  satisfied. 

The  existence  of  every  title  of  this  kind  is  a 
source  of  danger  and  embarrassment  to  registrar 
and  owner  alike,  because  it  is  impossible  to  know 
just  what  it  contains  without  doing  a  great  deal 
of  careful  work  which,  however  carefully  done, 


58 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


How  to 
remedy  ob- 
scure titles. 


involves  a  greater  risk  of  serious  error  than  or- 
dinarily good  conveyancing  should  do. 

The  only  possible  remedy  is  simple  but  expen- 
sive and  consists  in  taking  the  following  three 
steps: — 

(a).  To  have  a  survey  made  of  the  entire 
original  parcel  and  each  of  the  parcels  conveyed 
thereout  by  description. 

(b).  To  register  a  plan  of  such  survey,  showing 
clearly  the  boundaries  of  each  and  every  excepted 
parcel  and  showing  the  portions  still  remaining 
in  the  title  as  numbered  or  lettered  blocks. 

(c).  To  make  application  to  the  registrar  to 
cancel  the  existing  title  by  exception  and  to  issue 
instead  thereof  a  new  title  for  such  numbered  or 
lettered  blocks,  thus  converting  a  negative  title 
by  exception  into  a  positive  title  by  direct  de- 
scription. 


Descriptions  of  Railway  Right  of  Way. 

48.  Descriptions  of  railway  right  of  way  should  De«criptioi» 
almost  invariably  be  drawn  so  as  to  depend  di-  ".'  "''"'"y 
rectly  on  a  sufficient  plan  of  survey — either  at-  must  depend 
tacbed  to  the  instrument  containing  the  descrip-  "p  ""uffi- 
tion  or  of  previous  record.    That  is  to  sa.-  that  no  ^I^ey.*" 
attempt  should  be  made  to  describe  the  land  by 
metes  and  bounds  other  than  by  reference  to  the 
centre  line  of  the  railway  as  shown  on  such  plan. 

The  reason  for  the  above  statement  may  be 
found  in  the  fact  that  the  majority  of  right  of 
way  descriptions  are  complicated,  as  defined  in 
section  13,  in  that  the  boundaries  described  con- 
sist of  a  succession  of  tangents  and  curves.  More- 
over these  tangents  and  curves  are  actually  sur- 
veyed and  measured  along  the  centre  line  of  the 
railway,  whereas  the  boundaries  themselves,  on 
which  the  corresponding  tangents  are  of  different 
lengths  and  the  corresponding  curves  have  differ- 
ent radii  and  lengths,  are  not  surveyed  at  all,  but 
calculated  in  reference  to  the  survey  of  said  centre 
line.  It  follows  therefore  that  the  measurements 
given  in  a  description  by  metes  and  bounds  of  a 
right  of  way  are  calculated  instead  of  having  been 
measured  on  the  ground,  and  are  more  subject 
to  error  than  if  taken  from  actual  survey  data, 
sg 


eo 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


Another  objection  to  descriptions  by  metes  and 
bounds  of  railway  right  of  way  is  that  it  is  not 
possible  to  realize  the  position  of  the  land  de- 
scribed without  a  plan,  and,  if  the  description  be 
also  made  subject  to  a  sufficient  plan  of  survey 
there  is  no  object  m  describmg  the  land  by  metes 
and  bounds  at  all,  for  the  plan  is  then  an  integral 
part  of  the  description.  In  fact  any  description 
of  land  in  which  the  facts  of  survey  on  which  it  is 
based  are  presented  in  a  dual  manner,  as  in  the 
case  of  a  description  by  metes  and  bounds  which 
is  also  made  subject  to  a  plan  of  survey,  contains 
in  itself  this  element  of  weakness — that  any 
discrepancy  between  the  measurements  shown  on 
the  plan  and  those  contained  m  the  written  de- 
scription must  often  remain  unaccountable.  We 
have  seen,  for  instance,  that  it  is  neither  necessary 
nor  desirable  in  describing  a  quarter  section  ac- 
cordmg  to  the  departmental  plan  of  survey  of  the 
township  in  which  it  occurs  to  refer  to  the  measure- 
ments of  its  boundaries;  or,  in  describing  a  town 
lot  according  to  the  plan  of  survey  of  the  sub- 
division containing  it  to  refer  to  the  measure- 
ments of  such  lot. 

49.  Since  descriptions  of  right  of  way  must 
depend  directly  on  the  reg!  tared  plan  of  survey 
of  such  right  of  way,  it  is  essential  that  such  plan 
shall  be  a  "sufficient"  plan  of  survey,  as  defined 
in  section  5.    Given  such  a  plan  it  is  usual  to 


I 


DESCRlPTIOm  OF  LAND 


61 


describe  right  of  way  as  shown  in  the  following 
example:-" All   that   part   of   the   South   Ea.,t  Exaapi. 
quarter  of  Section  Twenty  (20)  in  Township  Forty- 
SK  (46)  Range  Twenty-three  (23)   West  of  the 
Fourth  (4th)  Meridian  in  the  Province  of  Alberta 
as  the  same  is  shown  on  a  plan  of  survey  of  said 
township  approved  and  confirmed  by  the  Surveyor 
General  of  Canada  at  Ottawa  on  the  14th  day  of 
May,  1894,  which  plan  is  of  record  in  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Interior  at  Ottawa  and  in  the  Land 
Titles  Office  for  the  North  Alberta  Land  Registra- 
tion District  at  Edmonton  in  said  Province  which 
is  taken  for  the  Right  of  Way  of  the  Canadian 
Pacific  RaUway  and  lies  between  two  lines  drawn 
parallel  to  and  perpendicularly  distant  fifty  (50) 
feet  from  and  on  opposite  sides  of  the  centre  line 
of  said  railway  as  the  same  is  shown  on  a  plan  of 
survey  of  said  railway  crossmg  said  land  and  lands 
adjoining  the  same  registered  in  said  Land  Titles 
Office  mider  number  2037  in  Day  Book  'P'  and 
as  said  railway  is  now  constructed  on  the  ground, 
the  land  herein  described  containing  Six  (6)  and 
66-100  acres  more  or  less  and  as  shown  colored 
red  on  said  plan  of  railway." 

There  are  several  points  in  th^  ibove  descrip- 
tion which  are  worth  considerir     - 

(a).  Since  railway  right  of  way  constitutes  a 
special  form  of  land  titles,  and  the  land  conveyed 
is,  as  a  rule,  devoted  to  the  one  purpose,  it  may  be 


«2 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


good  practical  conveyancing  to  describe  right  of 
way  as  being  "taken  for  the  Right  of  Way  of 
the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway"  with  a  view  to 
giving  it  general  distinctive  description.  In 
theory  however,  the  practice  is  incorrect.  There 
is  absolutely  no  difference  between  the  title  which 
a  railway  corporation  acquires  to  its  right  of  way 
and  any  other  title  to  land,  and  to  describe  it  in 
reference  to  its  present  or  future  use  is  as  if  a 
city  lot  were  described  as  "being  acquired  for  the 
purpose  of  erecting  a  livery  bam  thereon,"  which 
part  of  the  description  would  be  superfluous  at  any 
time  and  would  become  more  apparently  so  if  the 
land  were  used  for  some  entirely  different  purpose. 
(b).  The  words  "crossing  said  land  and  lands 
adjoining  the  same"  are  necessary  because,  since 
the  right  of  way  is  described  in  reference  to  the 
perpendicular  distance  of  its  boundaries  from  the 
centre  line,  the  projection  of  said  centre  line  be- 
yond the  actual  boundaries  of  the  parcel  of  land 
containing  the  right  of  way  being  described  must 
be  allowed  for.  For  instance,  suppose  a  point  of 
curve  of  the  centre  Ime  to  fall  exactly  on  a  bound- 
ary between  two  parcels  of  land;  there  will  then 
be  a  part  of  the  boundary  of  the  right  of  way  in 
each  of  said  parcels  which  will  be  neither  parallel 
to  nor  perpendicularly  distant  fifty  feet  from  the 
centre  line  as  it  is  shown  within  the  limits  of  said 
parcel. 


DBSCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


63 


(c).  The  words  "and  aa  such  railway  is  now 
constructed  on  the  grounda,"  or  words  to  the  same 
effect,  are  inserted  by  a  good  many  corporation 
lawyers  in  the  forms  of  t  ransfer  prepared  by  them 
for  the  use  of  railway  companies,  with  a  view  to 
safeguarding  the  company  from  the  effects  of 
trespass  committed  through  misdescription  of  its 
right  of  way.  Owing  to  the  insufficient  character 
of  many  railway  plans  on  which  descriptions  of 
right  of  way  have  been  based,  it  is  no  infrequent 
occurrence  for  subsequent  and  more  careful  sur- 
vey to  reveal  the  fact  that  the  Ifind  occupied  and 
fenced  in  by  the  company  docs  not  agree  with  that 
described  in  its  title;*  i.  e.,  that  the  company  is 
trespassing,  and  it  is  this  trespass  which  the  use 
of  the  above  words  is  intended  to  purge. 

It  is  possible  that  the  use  of  the  above  words 
may  have  something  of  the  intended  effect  as 
against  the  owner  of  the  land  who  executed  the 
original  transfer — he  being  still  the  owner  of  the 
remainder — in  that  such  owner  might  conceiv- 
ably be  ordered  by  a  court  to  fulfil  the  evident 
intention  of  the  faulty  transfer  by  executing  a 
new  one  in  lieu  of  it,  but  it  is  impossible  to  believe 
that  the  inserti'm  of  said  words  in  a  transfer, 
wherein  the  land  also  purports  to  be  precisely 
descriljed  in  reference  to  the  measurements  shown 
on  a  registered  plan,  can  hav<-  any  effect  on  the 
•See  section  18. 


64 


DESCRIPTlOffS  OF  LAND 


m 


title  that  issues  from  said  transfer.  If  the  latter 
were  the  case,  it  would  mean  one  of  two  things: 
either  that  the  land  conveyed  was  that  occupied 
by  the  company  at  the  date  of  the  transfer, 
whether  such  occupation  were  determined  by  the 
theoretical  width  on  either  side  of  the  centre  of 
the  actual  track  or  m  regard  to  the  position  of  the 
fences — matters,  in  either  case,  which  it  would 
be  impossible  to  establish  the  truth  in  regard  to 
after  a  few  years — or  else  it  might  be  construed 
to  mean  that  the  land  conveyed  was  that  occupied 
by  the  company  at  any  present  time,  or  in  other 
words  that  every  time  a  portion  of  the  track  were 
re-constructed,  a  curve  flattened  or  new  fences 
erected  the  land  conveyed  by  the  title  would  vary 
accordingly,  and  would  therefore  be  indeter- 
minate. 

In  the  absence  of  any  judicial  decisions  on  the 
point,  either  of  the  above  alternatives  appears  to 
be  preposterous. 

It  may  therefore  be  accepted  as  an  unestab- 
lished  rule  that  the  words  "and  as  such  railway 
is  now  constructed  on  the  ground  "  should  not  be 
inserted  in  descriptions  of  right  of  way,  and  that, 
if  they  are  so  inserted  in  transfers,  registrars 
should  at  least  see  that  they  are  not  included  in 
the  description  of  right  of  way  contained  in  cer- 
tificates of  title  issuing  from  said  transfers. 

(d).  One  difficulty  in  regard  to  the  above  form 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


65 


of  description  is  that  it  is  practically  impossible 
to  include  in  such  a  description  all  the  extra  land 
which  a  railway  company  requires  beyond  its 
mere  right  of  way  for  station  grounds,  wyes, 
sidings,  extra  wide  cuts  or  fills,  borro"  pi's,  water 
tanks,  snow  fences  or  sheds  or  othc  i,i'no»es  con- 
nected with  the  railway.  The  coiisir,nPiic.'  la  that 
separate  descriptions  have  to  bf  i  '  i.iu  Tor  u'l  .be;  s 
as  occasion  requires.  With  tn.  ,-i  .jptioi  of  sta- 
tion grounds,  all  the  extra  lard  o  icq  lirni  ia 
generally  of  so  small  a  momiary  vaiu^  thul  tue 
company  can  hardly  be  expected  to  '.ave  u  sepa- 
rate survey  made  of  each— which  survei  wouM 
probably  cost  three  or  four  times  ai*  nimli  u,s  the 
company  is  required  to  pay  for  the  land  itaclf— 
and  the  result  is  that  these  parcels  are  also  de- 
scribed in  reference  to  the  position  of  the  centre 
line.  Such  descriptions  are  often  very  involved 
but  must  be  accepted  as  one  of  the  weaknesses 
of  the  above  form  of  description. 

50.  While  the  method  of  describing  right  of  Method  of 
way  referred  to  in  the  preceding  section  is  almost  <'.««">'''ng 
universally  employed  at  the  present  time,  there  u'ttte'rJd'^ 
is  another  method  sometimes  used  which  is  dis-  ^i^ocIm  ihown 
tinctly  better  but  has  the  one  disadvantage  that  '"  "'"■ 
it  requires  a  more  complete  survey  of  the  land 
described.    This  method  consists  in  showing  the 
land  required  for  all  railway  purposes  as  lettered 
blocks  on  the  registered  plan  of  survey  of  the  right 


66 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


Example. 


of  way,  and  describing  them  in  the  same  way  that 
city  lots  are  described;  i.  e.,  without  direct  refer- 
ence to  any  of  the  measurements  shown  on  the 
plan  but  simply  by  referecce  to  the  lettered 
block  considered  as  a  separate  parcel  of  land, 
and  the  registration  marks  of  the  plan.  For 
instance: — 

"All  that  part  of  the  South  East  quarter  of 
section  Twenty  (20)  in  Township  Forty-six  (46) 
Range  Twenty-three  (23)  West  of  the  Fourth 
(4th)  Meridian  in  the  Province  of  Alberta  as  the 
same  is  shown  on  a  plan  of  survey  of  said  township 
approved  and  confirmed  by  the  Surveyor  General 
of  Canada  at  Ottawa  on  the  14th  day  of  May, 
1894,  which  plan  is  of  record  in  the  Department 
of  the  Interior  at  Ottawa  and  in  the  Land  Titles 
Office  for  the  North  Alberta  I.anJ  Registration 
District  at  Edmonton  m  said  Province  Being 
C.  P.  R.  Block  No.  1  containing  Six  and  sbrty-six 
hundredths  (6  66-100)  acres  be  the  same  more  or 
less  and  as  said  Block  is  shown  colored  red  on  a 
plan  of  survey  of  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway 
right  of  way  registered  in  said  Land  Titles  Office 
under  number  2037  in  Day  Book  '  P. ' 

One  advantage  in  the  above  form  is  that  it 
could  be  made  to  mclude  all  extra  right  of  way 
shown  on  the  original  plan,  either  as  part  of 
"C.  P.  R.  Block  No.  1"  or  as  "C.  P.  R.  Blocks 
Nos.  2,  3,  4,  etc." 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  67 

Aaother  advantage  is  that  it  is  somewhat 
shorter  and  more  simple  although  it  depends  no 
more  directly  on  the  plan  than  the  form  in  the 
preceding  section. 


Exception  of  Minerals  in  Descriptions  of  Land. 

UndindudM  51.  Since  the  theory  of  title  to  land  is  that  such 
deri^  t^r  *'*'®  ""^'"des  not  only  the  surface  but  all  that 
•u*.  underlies  it,  it  follows  that  all  mineral  deposits, 

underlying  land  would  be  included  in  a  perfect 
allodial  title  to  such  land.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
there  are  comparatively  few  such  titles  in  exist- 
ence. There  are  rare  cases  where  grants  for  land 
have  been  issued  by  the  Crown  without  any  reser- 
vation whatever,  as,  for  instance,  some  of  the 
earlier  grants  issued  by  the  Government  of  the 
Crown  Colony  of  British  Columbia,  which  con- 
veyed all  minerals — precious  or  otherwise.  The 
Dominion  Lands  Act  however,  always  excluded 
gold  and  silver  from  the  rights  conveyed  by  Crown 
Grant  to  land,  and  has  also  excluded  coal  and 
petroleum  for  some  years  past. 

Thus  we  see  that  there  are  certain  reservations 
and  exceptions  to  most  land  titles  created  by  the 
mentiooed  in  conditions  of  the  original  grant  from  the  Crown. 
rown«r«n  .  jjo^gygp^  jij^^g  ^^g  ^^^  many  existing  titles  which 
include  the  base  minerals,  and  it  is  frequently 
required  to  except  coal  for  mstance  from  the  opera- 
tion of  a  conveyance  transferring  the  land  which 
overlays  it.    This  is  effected  by  adding  to  the  end 
68 


Land  titles 
■ubject  to 
KaervBtionB 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


69 


of  the  description  contained  in  such  conveyance 
the  words  "Saving  and  excepting  thereout  and 
therefrom  all  coal  which  may  be  in  or  under  said 
land  and  the  right  to  mme  the  same"  or  other 
words  to  that  effect. 

It  will  frequently  happen  that  a  person  trans-  Restrictive 
ferring  land  but  retaining  the  coal  rights  will  ™''=°"','"  ■" 
want  to  have  included  in  the  description  articles  ti^teTviided. 
of  agreement  as  to  his  right  of  entry  upon  the  land 
for  the  purpose  of  mining  said  coal.    Such  articles 
would  constitute  a  restriciive  covenant  in  the 
title  and,  therefore,  should  not  be  inserted  in  the 
description  of  the  land  to  be  transferred,  but 
should  be  embodied  in  a  separate  form  of  agree- 
ment between  the  parties  which  could  be  regis- 
tered against  the  title. 

Note. — If  the  fee  sunple  of  an  entire  parcel  of 
ind  ia  transferred  "saving  and  excepting  thereout 
and  therefrom  all  coal  which  may  be  in  or  under 
said  land,  etc."  the  apparent  effect  is  to  create  a 
fue  simple  for  the  remainder — in  this  case  the 
coal.  This  is  of  course  impossible,  but  a  separate 
title  to  the  coal  is  certainly  created  in  such  a  case. 
I  am  writing  of  the  practice  of  conveyance  by 
description  as  I  know  it  to  be— and  the  case 
stated  ia  quite  common  practice — but  my  own 
opinion  would  be  that  it  is  improper  to  create  a 
title  for  coal  apart  from  the  land  which  overlays 
it,  and  that  all  transactions  in  regard  to  coal  should 
be  in  the  form  of  lease  and  should  follow  the  title 
to  the  land  in  the  same  way  that  an  unredeemed 


70  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

mortgage  does.  For  instance  it  is  my  opinion  that 
a  vendor  desiring  to  retain  coal  rights  should 
transfer  the  coal  with  the  land  and  receive  back 
from  the  vendee  a  reciprocal  lease  of  the  coal 
rights  to  be  repstered  against  said  vendee's  title 
when  issued. 


Interpretation  of  Faulty  Descriptions  of  Land. 

52.  A  description  of  land  should  be  drawn  in 
such  a  way  that  it  is  capable  of  only  one  possible 
interpretation. 

Unfortunately  there  are  many  descriptions  of 
land  which  contain  inherent  errors  in  construc- 
tion and  in  the  mathematical  data  given  in  regard 
to  the  various  boundaries  of  the  land  described, 
which  nevertheless  form  the  base  of  title  to  such 
land.  It  therefore  becomes  necessary  to  consider 
the  question  of  how  to  interpret  a  faulty  descrip- 
tion in  laymg  out,  or  otherwise  dealing  with,  the 
land  described  or  lands  adjacent  thereto.  If  the 
land  conveyed  by  a  faulty  description  is  of  suflS- 
cient  value,  and  the  parties  affected  cannot  agree 
upon  an  interpretation  of  such  description  that  is 
mutually  satisfactory,  it  is  often  necessary  to  ap- 
ply to  the  courts  for  an  interpretation  thereof. 
A  Judge  has  power  to  take  evidence  into  con- 
sideration and  issue  an  order  accordmgly.  In 
the  case  of  registrars,  conveyancers,  surveyors 
and  others  who  have  occasion  to  deal  with  faulty 
descriptions,  and  who  do  not  have  the  power  of 
discretion  vested  in  a  Judge,  it  may  be  laid  down 
as  a  general  rule  that  "When  dealing  with  a 
71 


Existence  of 
faulty  de- 
scriptions 
which  are 
nevertheleea 
bases  of  title. 


Interpreta- 
tion of  faulty 
descriptions 
by  a  judge. 


L 


72 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


Dccription.  faulty  description  it  is  only  pennissible  to  take 
tobeloUowed  -^^^  consideration  the  mere  technical  facts  pre- 
c^mSH^d.  sented  in  the  description  as  written  in  the  order 

in  which  they  are  written." 
EumpU.  53.  For  instance,  suppose  a  part  of  a  quarter 

gection  to  be  described  as  follows: — "Commenc- 
ing at  the  North  East  comer  of  said  quarter  sec- 
tion; Thence  South  along  the  East  boundary  of 
said  quarter  section  a  distance  of  2,000  feet  to  a 
point  (A)  Thence  North  60°  00'  West  a  distance 
of  3,049  feet  more  or  less  to  a  point  on  the  West 
boundary  of  said  quarter  section;  (B)  Thence 
North  along  said  West  boundary  a  distance  of 
376  feet  more  or  less  to  the  North  West  comer  of 
said  quarter  section;  (C)  Thence  East  along  the 
North  boundary  of  said  quarter  section  a  distance 
of  2,640  feet  more  or  less  to  the  point  of  commence- 
ment." 

On  plotting  the  above  description  it  will  be 
found  that  when  the  position  of  the  point  (B)  has 
been  determined  in  accordance  with  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  course  A-B,  the  distance  from  (B)  to 
(C)  is  in  reality  476  feet  instead  of  376  feet  as 
described.  The  description  is  therefore  faulty  in 
that  it  will  not  close  because  the  correlation  of 
the  various  courses  as  described  is  mathematically 
impossible.  Either  the  bearmg  of  A-B  is  correct 
and  the  distance  B-C  as  given  in  the  description 
is  wrong,  or  the  distance  B-C  as  given  in  the 


DESCRIPTIONS  OP  LAND 


73 


description  is  correct  and  tlie  Ijearing  of  A-B 
must  be  disregarded.  Neglecting  tlie  possibUity 
tliat  both  distance  and  bearing  are  incorrect,  and 
following  the  general  rule  above  stated,  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  bearing  given  for  A-B  must 
be  accepted  as  correct,  smce  the  first  two  courses 
described  are  correct  in  themselves  and  are  not 
subject  to  that  which  follows. 

Of  course  there  is  a  certain  amount  of  internal  Departure 
evidence  contained  in  such  a  description  which  '"""  «<^""'>' 
may  be  strong  enough  to  justify  a  departure  from  Ita™  *]„»'«- 
the  general  rule:  For  instance,  supposing  the  dis-  ^"^  '"'' '"'"" 
tance  given  for  A-B  to  have  been  3,099.4  feet  ifie^tZ'. 
more  or  less,  which  equals  cosecant  58°  25'  x  Eiampie. 
2,640  and  which  would  agree  with  the  distance  of 
376  feet  given  for  B-C,  and  that  the  area  of  the 
parcel  is  given  as  being  72  acres  which  would 
also  agree  with  said  distance,  the  weight  of  evi- 
dence would  tend  to  disprove  the  correctness  of 
the  bearing  given  for  A-B  and  to  show  that  the 
distance  of  376  feet  given  for  B-C  was  comnit. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  in  any  case  where  the  dis- 
crepancy is  so  marked  as  in  the  above  example, 
it  would  be  very  unsafe  to  assume  either  inter- 
pretation of  the  description;  the  only  proper 
course  would  be  to  remedy  the  description  itself 
either  by  re-conveyance  on  the  part  of  the  regis- 
tered owners  of  the  land,  or  by  obtaining  an  order 
of  the  court  to  that  effect. 


74 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


It  may  be  noted  that  if  the  course  A-B  had 
been  described  so  as  to  read  "Thence  North 
60°  00*  West  a  distance  of  3,049  feet  more  or 
less  to  a  point  on  the  West  boundary  of  said 
quarteT  -action  distant  376  feet  from  the  North 
West  r-,mer  thereof,"  there  would  be  no  dis- 
crepi  oy,  because  the  bearing,  though  incorrect, 
would  be  subject  to  the  position  of  two  clearly 
defined  points  and  would  be  manifestly  wrong. 


Preunbl*  of  t  Description  of  tand. 

54.  For  use  in  all  cases  where  it  may  seem  ad- 
visable, the  following  is  a  good  form  of  preamble 
which  is  sti)  etimes  used  in  descriptions  of  land: 
"All  and  singular  that  certain  parcel  or  tract  of  Formolpre- 
land  and  premises  situate  lying  and  being  in  the  T"'  '°°'*' 
Province  of  Alberta  in  the  Dominion  of  Canada 
comprising  part  of  the  South  East  quarter  of 
Section  Twenty  (20)  in  Township  Fourteen  (14) 
Range  Twelve  (12)  West  of  the  Fourth  (4th) 
Meridian  as  the  same  is  shown  on  a  plan  of  survey 
of  said  township  approved  and  confirmed  by  the 
Surveyor  General  of  Canada  at  Ottawa  on  the 
14th  day  of  May,  1894,  and  which  may  be  more 
particularly  described  as  follows,  that  is  to  say :—  " 

In  ordinary  practice  however,  the  use  of  such  Above  otoi 
a  form  is  cumbersome  and  unnecessary.     For  '"'""=f«"'y 
instance  many  Real  Property  Acts  define  the  t^^°^ 
meaning  of  the  word  "land"  in  the  interpretation 
clauses  of  the  Act  to  mean  "lands,  messuages, 
tenement,  and  hereditaments,  corporeal  and  in- 
corporeal, of  every  nature  and  description,  and 
every  estate  or  interest  therein,  etc.,  etc."     It 
follows,  therefore,  that  when  conveying  land  held 
under  the  provisions  of  such  an  act  it  is  quite 
76 


76  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

tmnecesssry  to  include  the  words  "and  prem- 
ises." 
OeiMral  lorn     As  a  general  rule  it  is  quite  sufficient  to  com- 
otpreuBble.   j^^^g  j  description  "All  that  portion  of  the 
South  East  quarter,  etc." 


Ezunplcs  of  Descriptions  of  Land  with  Explana- 
tory Notes. 

55.  The  following  example  is  a  description  of  a 
city  lot  together  with  an  easement  over  the  East 
14  inches  of  the  lot  immediately  adjoining  the 
same  on  the  West  side  thereof,  which  easement  is 
created  by  the  previous  registration  of  a  party 
wall  agreement  and  is  appurtenant  to  the  lot 
described.  The  boundaries  of  both  lots  are  shown 
to  be  due  North  and  South  or  East  and  West 
on  the  repstered  plan  of  subdivision. 

"The  whole  of  Lot  numbered  Thirteen  (13) 
in  Block  numbered  Seventy-one  (71)  in  the  City 
of  Calgary  in  the  Province  of  Alberta  in  the 
Dominion  of  Canada  as  the  same  is  shown  on  a 
plan  of  subdivision  of  a  part  of  said  City  regis- 
tered m  the  Land  Titles  Office  for  the  South 
Alberta  Land  Registration  District  in  said  City 
under  cumber  2133  in  Day  Book  'S'  together 
with  an  easement  over  the  East  Fourteen  (14) 
inches  of  lot  numbered  Twelve  (12)  in  said  Block 
for  the  purposes  specifically  mentioned  in  an 


DESCBIPTIO\S  OF  LAND 


77 


iiutrument  registered  in  said  Land  Titles  Office 
under  number  249  in  Day  Book  'R'." 


Notei. 

(a).  The  effect  of  the  registration  of  instrument 
249  R  was  to  register  a  charge  or  encumbrance 
against  the  Certificate  of  Title  for  Lot  12  and  a 
corresponding  entry  on  the  Certificate  of  Title 
for  Lot  13  making  the  easement  appurtenant 
thereto. 

(6).  In  some  cases  conveyancers  define  the  pur- 
poses and  conditions  of  the  easement  in  the  body 
of  the  description,  thus  making  the  description 
more  complete  and  self  contained,  l  prefer  the 
method  of  reference  to  the  registered  instrument 
creating  the  easement  as  eliminating  all  possibility 
of  discrepancy  between  the  terms  of  the  ease- 
ment as  expressed  in  the  description  and  as 
actually  provided  in  the  registered  instrument. 
Also  the  terms  and  conditions  mentioned  in  the 
registered  instrument  are  frequently  irrelevant 
to  a  description  of  land,  and  their  inclusion  in  a 
description  intended  to  be  inserted  in  a  Certificate 
of  Title  would  tend  to  obscure  the  real  facts  of 
such  title 

56.  The  following  example  illustrates  the  parti- 
tion by  description  of  two  city  lots,  and  is  based 
on  the  facts  of  an  actual  case: — 


MKtOCOrr   IBOIUTION   IBT  CHA»T 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


A  ^PPLIEC  ItVHGE    Inc 

^ST-  'SS3   Eai'   Main   Str««1 

=^S  Rochesl«f,   New   York         14S09       USA 

1^™  (716)   482  -  0300  -  Phone 

^S  <^'C)  2M-a9a9-F<]> 


78  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


iHr 


Lots  1  and  2  as  shown  in  the  figure  were  origi- 
nally owned  by  A.  A  first  sold  to  B  the  part  de- 
scribed as  follows: — 

"All  those  portions  of  Lots  numbered  One  (1) 
and  Two  (2)  in  Block  numbered  Five  (5)  in  the 
City  of  Edmonton  in  the  Province  of  Alberta  in 
the  Dominion  of  Canada  as  the  same  are  shown 
on  a  plan  of  subdivision  of  part  of  said  city  regis- 
tered in  the  Land  Titles  Office  for  the  North 
Alberta  Land  Registration  District  in  said  City 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


79 


under  number  14  in  Day  Book  'X '  which  may  be 
more  particularly  described  as  follows: — 

"Commencing  at  the  North  West  comer  of  said 
Lot  1:  Thence  South  along  the  West  boundary  of 
said  lot  Seventy  (70)  feet  to  a  point;  Thence 
Easterly  and  parallel  to  the  Northerly  boundaries 
of  said  lots  1  and  2  to  a  point  on  the  Easterly 
boundary  of  said  lot  2;  Thence  Northerly  along 
said  Easterly  boundary  to  the  North  East  comer 
of  said  lot  2;  Thence  Westerly  along  the  Northerly 
boundary  of  said  lots  2  and  1  ninety-five  (95) 
feet  more  or  less  to  the  point  of  commence- 
ment." 

A  then  sold  to  C  "All  these  portions  of  Lots 
numbered  One  (1)  and  Two  (2)  etc.,  .  .  . 
which  may  be  described  as  the  most  Southerly 
Eighty  (80)  feet  throughout  of  said  lots." 

B  erected  a  six  story  modem  block  completely 
covering  the  most  Northerly  70  feet  of  said  lots 
measured  perpendicularly  from  the  Northerly 
boundary  thereof. 

A  discovered  that  the  part  sold  by  him  to  B 
as  described  above,  only  contained  69.6  feet  meas- 
ured perpendicularly  from  the  Northerly  bound- 
ary of  said  lots,  and  demanded  payment  for  the 
remaining  four-tenths  of  a  foot. 

On  a  careful  resurvey  of  the  lots  being  made  it 
was  discovered  that  they  were  two-tenths  of  a 
foot  longer,   measured  along  the  First  Street 


80 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


frontage,  than  the  measurement  shown  on  the 
registered  plan,  and  B  was  obliged,  on  advice  of 
his  counsel,  to  pay  to  A  a  sum  of  $1,000,  for  the 
ox-tenths  of  a  foot  still  remaining  in  A's  title. 


Notes. 

(a).  The  description  of  the  part  so!u  by  A  to 
B  was  a  perfectly  good  description  in  itself,  but 
was  misunderstood  by  B  and  his  agents.  On 
the  other  hand  it  did  not  cany  out  the  evident 
intention  of  the  parties  to  divide  the  land  into 
two  parts  having  perpendicular  depths  of  70  and 
80  feet  respectively. 

(6).  It  is  important  to  not«  that  all  the  parties 
involved  were  bound  by  the  actual  terms  of  the 
description  contained  in  the  transfer  from  A  to 
B,  in  spite  of  A's  evident  intention  to  dispose  of 
the  whole  of  his  property  by  the  two  transfers  to 
B  and  C  respectively,  and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
the  registrar  had  erroneously  cancelled  his  title 
in  full  on  the  registration  of  the  second  transfer 
to  C  some  years  previously,  and  that  A's  title  had 
therefore  been  latent  for  such  time. 

(c).  The  description  of  the  land  sold  by  A  to  C 
was  loosely  and  incorrectly  drawn,  but  its  intent 
was  admitted  by  both  A  and  C  to  mean  "the 
most  Southerly  80  feet  of  the  lots  measured  per- 
pendicularly   from    the    Southerly    boundary 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  81 

thereof.    For  a  proper  method  of  description  of 
this  part  see  Sections  41  and  42  (a)  and  (6). 

57.  In  connection  with  the  description  of  lots 
as  shown  on  plans  of  subdivision  of  lands  lying 
outside  of,  but  comparatively  near  to,  the  limits 
of  an  incorporated  city  or  town,  it  is  very  common 
practice  to  describe  the  whole  subdivision  by  some 
high  sounding  name  as  a  "suburb  of  "  or  "  an  addi- 
tion to"  such  city  or  town.  For  instance:— "Lot 
numbered  One  (1)  in  Block  numbered  Forty-sU 
(46)  in  Marlborough  Heights  being  an  addition 
to  the  townsite  of  Orwell  as  the  same  is  shown 
etc." 

It  is  almost  unnecessary  to  say  that  this  prac- 
tice emanates  from  real  estate  offices  rather  than 
from  the  law  courts. 

A  subdivision  within  the  limits  of  a  city  or 
town  is  a,  part  of  said  city  or  i 

A  subdivision  outside  such  limits  is  not  a  part 
of  such  city  or  town.  It  is  merely  a  subdivision 
of  a  parcel  of  land  which  may  never  be  incor- 
porated within  the  limits  of  an  adjacent  town  and 
can  only  be  properly  identified  by  the  legal  de- 
scription of  the  land  itself.  Moreover,  it  is  not 
practically  possible  to  establish  a  limit  of  distance 
beyond  city  limits  within  which  a  subdivision 
may  be  termed  "an  addition  "  or  "a  suburb  ",  and 
when  such  a  subdivision  happens  to  be  five  miles 
beyond  city  limits,  either  of  the  above  terms  is 


82 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


obviously  misleading.  Therefore  the  description 
of  all  lots  situated  in  subdivisions  outside  the 
limits  of  an  incorporated  city  or  town  should  be 
described  as  follows: — 

"Lot  numbered  One  (1)  in  Block  numbered 
Thirteen  (13)  as  the  same  is  shown  on  a  plan  of 
subdivision  of  part  of  the  South  East  quarter  of 
Section  Fourteen  (14)  in  Township  Forty-one  (41) 
Range  Thirteen  (13)  West  of  the  Fourth  (4th) 
Meridian  in  the  Province  of  Alberta  in  the  do- 
minion of  Canada  which  plan  is  registered  in  the 
Land  Titles  OfiSce  for  the  North  Alberta  Land 
Repstration  District  at  Edmonton  in  said  Prov- 
ince under  number  7144  in  Day  Book  ' K. '" 

58.  The  following  example  is  a  description  of 
part  of  a  quart  t  section  bounded  on  the  West  and 
South  by  the  boundaries  of  the  quarter  section, 
on  the  North  by  the  High  Water  Mark  of  the 
North  Saskatchcw;in  River  and  on  the  East  by 
the  Westerly  boundary  of  a  registered  townsite, 
which  however  does  not  extend  to  said  High 
Water  Mark: — 

"All  that  part  of  the  North  West  quarter  of 
Section  Twenty-three  (23)  in  Township  Forty- 
two  (42)  Range  Fourteen  (14)  West  of  the  Fourth 
(4tb)  Meridian  m  the  Province  of  Alberta  in  the 
Dominion  of  Canada  as  the  same  is  shown  on  a 
plan  of  survey  of  said  township  approved  and  con- 
firmed by  the  Surveyor  General  of  Canada  at 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  83 

Ottawa  on  the  18th  day  of  July,  1907,  which  plan 
IS  of  record  in  the  Department  of  the  Interior 
at  Ottawa  and  m  the  Land  Titles  Office  for  the 
North  Alberta  Und  Registration   District  at 
Edmonton  in  said  Province  and  which  may  be 
more  particularly  described  as  follows— Com- 
mencing at  the  South  West  comer  of  said  quarter 
section;   Thence   Easterly  along   the  Southerly 
boundary  of  said  quarter  section  Eighteen  hun- 
dred and  sixty-fom'  (1864)  feet  more  or  less  to  the 
mtersection  of  said  boundary  with  the  Westerly 
boundary  of  Elm  Street  as  the  same  is  shown  on 
a  plan  of  subdivision  registered  in  said  Land 
Titles  Office  under  number  4173  m  Day  Book 
'AM';  Thence  North  along  said  West  boundary 
of  Elm  Street,  and  said  West  boundary  produced 
Northerly,  Fourteen  hundred  and  twenty  (1420) 
feet  more  or  less  to  the  High  Water  Mark  of  the 
North  Saskatchewan  River;  Thence  Westerly  and 
foUowmg  said  High  Water  Mark  in  an  upstream 
direction  to  its  mtersection  with  the  West  bound- 
ary of  said  quarter  section;  Thence  South  along 
said  West  boundary  One  thousand  and  ninety- 
four  (1094)  feet  more  or  less  to  the  South  West 
comer  of  said  quarter  section  and  point  of  com- 
mencement  the  part  herem  described  containing 
approximately  Fifty-three  (S3)  acres  be  the  same 
more  or  less." 


84 


JiBSCRlPTlONS  OF  LAND 
Notes. 


down  in  section  27  "®  "^^  '^'d 

the  rule  ,aid  do^ S:?;"  ""^""^^^^  -'" 

by  the  right  7wavoT^;"''^  '"'  »•>«  South 
Railway:-  ^  "'  '^^  °"°<'  Trunk  Pacific 

«-;^T:er^nrS;r,^'~ro. 

strtrjrr"^^-- 

I^ominion  of"^?;,^""'"'^  "^  Alberta  in  the 
plan  of  surveyTstid  to  T"  "  ''^°'^"  °"  " 
confirmed  by  the  s!^  *  ^''"^  "PP^^^l  ond 
at  Ottawa  on  the  ilthT      .'."'""  "'  ^^'^ 

terior  at  Ottawa  a^d  in  th^r'^T*  °'  *^«  ^"- 
the  North  AlbertrLanH  p  '*'""  °®««  f"' 

Edmonton  in  S^!?  .''^^'*^  """^  District  at 

of  the  Grand  Trunk  Pac  rP^Hw     "'^'  "^  '^"^ 
is  shown  on  a  nlaTnf  "^  "^  *he  same 

«^«te^in:i;5ra^r?:rS"'«^^-- 

ber  14444  in  Day  Book  'LV'  "°'^''  """" 


D£SCRIPTIOm  OF  LAND 


85 


-explanatory p,an^fj;7„:^;«f'-*  to 
shown  on  the  railway  nlan  rl,^  ^"^ 

out  the  aasu^ee  Jor^  b;  a^e'v"''  "'*''■ 
ieate,  a  registrar  would  be  ilffiT^?  '=*'*'^- 
accept  the  conveyan^  ^  t1  Wed"  a" t'C 
acreage,  since  hs  ~,„m  i,  """^ea  a  specified 

(b)  aIToT        °' °°*-   (^  Section  13.) 
^o;.  A  very  common  mistake  ia  t«  j™    .. 

a  parcel  as  the  above  as^-wL  .    1    "** '"''' 

the  Grand  Trunk  pLfi    p'^'^  ***  *^'  ^o^''  "^ 

tabli«hing theZti™  t.K     '"'*^"  '^*^''"'  ««- 

at  least  twoZn^o?;unh,  ^'^  ""  P"''"""^ 
I-nd  Titles  'is  To  "^  °'  ""'^'^  ^  '•'^ 
exactly  witi,  ''°  °°t  as  a  rule  agree 

exactly  with  one  another,  and  smce  it  i=  ^ 
possible  that  the  land  actuallv  * ''  ''"'te 
fenced  in  by  the  railway  c^Sl  Z'S  '"' 
respond  with  that  shown  nn  Ju       ,  *  ""'" 

that  such  a  descriDtrn?-        ^    '  P'"^'  '*  ^"""^^ 
-xu  a  aescnption  is  inadmissihii.  in  ti,  *  -^ 

lacks  clearness  and  definition  """^  '* 

li-H'ofalSr"  '"'""  *°  "--be  the 

Manitoba  S„,tl!  i!  °  *^^  Provinces  of 

amtoba,  Saskatchewan  and  Alberta  at  least  a 


8C 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


regigtrar  must  refuse  to  recognize  the  limit  of  a 
I  ight  of  way  as  established  until  c  sufficient  plan 
of  survey  has  been  filed  or  registered,  so  that  a'^y 
absolute  transfer  of  land  based  on  the  position 
of  right  of  way — considered  as  such — would  be 
unregisterable  until  such  time.  However,  such 
descriptions  are  frequently  required  to  be  made  for 
insertion  in  interim  agreements  of  sale,  etc.,  and 
the  following  example  is  r.  description  by  metes 
and  boimds  of  the  parcel  otherwise  described  in 
the  preceding  section: — 

"All  that  part  of  the  North  East  quarter  of 
Section  Twenty-one  (21)  in  Township  Forty- 
nine  (49)  Range  Seventeen  (17)  West  of  the 
Fourth  (4th)  Meridian  in  the  Province  of  Alberta 
in  the  Dominion  of  Canada  as  the  same  is  shown 
on  a  plan  of  survey  of  said  township  approved 
and  confirmed  by  the  Surveyor  General  of  Canada 
at  Ottawa  on  the  11th  day  of  October,  1903, 
which  plan  is  of  record  in  the  Department  of  the 
Interior  at  Ottawa  and  in  the  Land  Titles  Office 
for  the  North  Alberta  Land  Registration  District 
at  Edmonton  in  said  Province  and  which  may  be 
more  particularly  described  as  follows: — 

"Commencing  at  the  North  East  comer  of 
said  quarter  section;  Thence  on  an  assumed 
bearing  of  due  South  along  the  Easterly  boundary 
of  said  quarter  section  a  distance  of  Eighteen 
hundred  and  thirty  decimal  pomt  seven  (1830.7) 


DESCRIPTIOXS  OF  LAND  87 

feet  to  a  pomt;  rhvnce  North  83"  JO'  West  ■ 
d«tance  of  Fifteen   hundred  and    twenty-nine 
(1529)  feet  to  a  point;  Thence  on  a  curve  to  the 
right  having  a  constant  radius  of  Fifteen  hundred 
and  nineteen  (lol9)  feet  from  a  centre  lying  in  a 
direction  of  North  25°  00'  East  from  the  last 
mention.3d  point  a  distance  of  Three  hundred  and 
ninety-seven  decimal  point  six  seven  (397  67) 
f^t;  Thence  North  50°  00'  West  a  distance  of 
Twelve  hundred  (1200)  feet  more  or  iess  to  inter- 
sect the  West  boundary  of  said  quarter  «H;tion; 
Thence  North  along  said  West  boundary  Two 
hundred  feet  more  or  less  to  the  North  West 
comer  of  said  quarter  section;  Thence  due  East 
along  the  North  boundary  of  said  -^-arter  section 
Twenty-SB  hundred  and  forty  ,.,,0)  feet  more 
or  less  to  the  North  East  comer  of  said  quarter 
section  and  pomt  of  commencement." 

61.  There  is  an  example  of  an  ordinary  descrip- 
tion  of  railway  right  of  way  given  in  secticn  49. 
As  these  descriptions,  -'y  vary  as  to  the  Lmd  of 
which  the  right  of  way  forms  a  part,  the  width 
of  the  nght  of  way  and  the  registration  data  of 
the  railway  plan  on  which  they  are  based,  no 
further  example  need  be  given  here. 

62.  The  following  example  is  a  description  of 
additional  right  of  way  required  by  the  railway 
company  after  ..  has  acquired  title  to  the  right 
of  way  Bhown  on  its  registered  plan  of  survey  of 


88 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


the  game;  the  preamble  may  be  assumed  to  be 
the  same  as  that  given  for  the  description  con- 
tained in  section  60:—  "Commencing  at  the 
point  of  intersection  of  the  Northerly  limit  of  the 
right  of  way  of  the  Grand  Tnmk  Pacific  Railway 
as  said  right  of  way  is  shown  on  a  plan  of  survey 
thereof  registered  in  said  Land  Titles  Office  under 
number  1167  in  Day  Book  'P'  with  a  line  drawn 
at  right  angles  to  the  centre  line  of  said  railway 
as  shown  on  said  plan  from  a  point  distant  Thir- 
teen hundred  and  seven  (1307)  feet  Westerly 
from  the  intersection  of  said  centre  Ime  with  the 
Eaiterly  boundary  of  said  quarter  section;  Thence 
Westerly  and  following  said  Northerly  limit  a 
distance  of  Six  hundred  and  sixty  (660)  feet  to  a 
point;  Thence  North  Easterly  on  a  line  drawn  at 
right  angles  to  the  tangent  to  the  curve  at  that 
point  a  distrnce  of  Sixty-six  (66)  feet  to  a  point; 
Thence  Easterly  and  parallel  throughout  to  said 
Northerly  limit  a  distance  of  Six  hundred  and 
sixty-one  (661)  feet  more  or  less  to  a  point  distant 
Sixty-six  (66)  feet  from  the  point  of  commence- 
ment in  a  line  drawn  at  right  angles  to  the  said 
Northerly  limit  at  that  point;  Thence  in  a.  straight 
line  Sixty-six  feet  to  said  point  of  commencement 
the  part  herein  described  cor  taining  One  (1)  acre 
be  the  same  more  or  less  and  as  shown  colored 
red  on  an  attached  copy  of  part  of  said  plan." 
(a).  It  will  be  noted  that  the  above  description 


DESCmpTIom  OF  LAND  89 

i»  not  self  contained  but  depends  in  a  i«m„w.^ 

».nner^thep,anoftheTu4™S 
land.     Tliia  constitutes  a  defect  vhiohi 
avoidable  unJess  a  s«par„     .  Jey  If  tt  n  ""; 
«  made,  and  a  plan  thereof  aZh^  ^Cf 
scnptionandmadeapartofit.   Tsthtrofth: 

«su.:,jdr:rZei,^rf 

t  e,r  toe  znight  easily  amount  to iS  3  Jh 
J-npfons  of  additional  right  of  way  are  vej 
commonly  used.  ^ 


""HE  following  pages  contain  advertisements  of  a 
few  of  the  Macmillan  books  on  kindred  subjects. 


1       .!: 


Surveying  and  Surveying  Instruments 

>     J  .     ,  .     ^If  G.  A.  T,  MIDDLETOM 
Thml  edition,  revised  and  enlarged.  London,  „„. 

Field  and  Colliery  Surveying 

an^ciTr^  S^Tg!? i^^J^ J^-  <"  Students  of  Snrveying 

By  T.  A.  O'DONAHUE,  M.I.M.E.   FGS 
London,  .8,6.    Latent  reprint  wiU.  additioLf  ;,„. 

Clolk,  163  pp.,  lU.,  «^,  ,  ,ao  net 

In  Colliery  Surveying.       "•""'  treauae  on  modem  practice 

I^d  Surveying  and  Leveling 

^^^^^Bv^THUR  THOMAS  WALMISLEY 

^,..     ,  ^''"•■'44PP:i2im,,tt.gona 

..u^lrslflstSefSLfjii"'-"  ^'«  '^' 
practical  working  of  instfXnts  and  fielH^,£T™'°«  ">' 
«  one.  It  wiU  be  found  a  pSctiil  bit  „  . '  '""?  ^  *^^ 
of  those  Uking  Civil  EMiWri„„  ™  °  ■""  """  "■«  h^nds 
their  training.  '^■>8""«nng  courses  at  an  early  date  in 

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h.  k 


BOOKS  ON  CIVa  ENGINEERmQ 

Roads :  Their  Construction  and  Maintenance 

With  Special  Reference  to  Road  Materials. 

By  ALLAN  GREENWELL,  A.M.I.C.E.,  F.G.S.,  and  J.  V. 
ELSDEN,  B.Sc.  (Lond.).  F.G.S. 

London,  1901. 

Cloth,  27S  PP-f  I2m0y  $1.60  net 

A  work  which,  while  essentially  of  an  elemenUry  nature, 
nevertheless  deals  with  such  of  the  inherent  difficulties  of  the 
subject  as  are  sure  to  confront  the  student  who  desires  to 
become  familiar  with  the  principlea  which  should  guide  him 
in  his  daily  practice. 

Mining  Tables 

By  F.  H.  Hatch,  Ph.D.,  F.G.S. 
Member  of  the  Institute  of  Civil  Engineers,  Member  of  the  Ameri- 
can Institute  of  Mining  Engineers,  Member  of  the  Institution 
of  Mining  and  Metallurgy,  Late  Preddoit  of  the  Geological 
Society  of  Soath  Africa,  and  E.  G.  Valentldo,  F.G.S.,  Member 
of  the  Federated  Institute  of  Mining  Engim^rs,  Asaodate  of 
the  Inatitutioa  of  Mining  and  MetaUur^. 


London,  1907. 


Cloth,  aoo  pp.y  8vo,  $1.75  lui 


A  comparison  of  the  units  of  weight,  measure,  currency, 
mining  area,  etc.,  of  different  countries;  together  with  tables, 
consUints  and  other  data  useful  to  mining  engineers  and  sur- 


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BOOKS  OK  Cim  EHGINEBRmo 


The  Theory  and  Practice  of  Bridge  Con- 
struction in  Timber,  Iron  and  Steel 

By  morgan  W.  DAVIES 
London,  1908. 

Clolh,  }fi4  pp.,  7j,R,_  fjjg  ^ 
The  aim  of  this  work  is  primarily  to  furnish  easily  understood 

rivL^f  ,f^       ^■■"lyucally  and  graphically.    E«mples  a,. 

o  Umt^  TT  ."'■r  °'  "'^""^  """«"  constructed  eith^ 
of  imber  or  of  steel.  In  every  instance  the  calculations  and 
designs  are  set  out  step  by  step  in  their  developmen  ta"d  the 

dltr  ^^  ""■■  "'"^"'^  ""-  '^'  -"^  ^ 
Moving  Loads  on  Railway  Underbridges 

Including  l/iagrams  of  Bending  Moments  and  Sl,„„-- 
Forces,  and  Tables  of  Equivalent  Unifor^Uve  ^"^ 

By  HAKRY  BAMFORD,  M.Sc.,  A.  M.  Inst.  C   E 
London,  1907.  ^' 

Clolh,  rs  pp.,  svo,  $i.2s  „a 

has  succeeded  m  devismg  a  graphical  method,  whereby  on  a 
smgle  diagram,  the  maximum  shears  and  the  mjimWh^d 

s^^.^H,  ^'='^™"«'  "■'■>  facility  for  a  wide  tange  o^ 
spans  and  for  any  g,ve„  type-train.  The  book  will  provTus^ 
M  to  engm.«,ng  students  in  genera]  and  to  de«gn«  „(  ^ 
way  underbridgcs  in  particular. 


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BOOKS  OIC  CIVIL  INOIHEEIUNO 


Simplified  Methods  of  Calculating  Rein- 
forced Concrete  Beams 

Bv  W.  NOBLE  TWELVETREES,  M.  I.  Mech.  E.,  A.  M.  I. 
E.  E.,  M.  R.  S.  I. 
London,  looQ. 

Paper,  10  pp..  III.,  iiMo,  t  .10  net 


'•I 


The  Practical  Deeign  of  Reinforced  Concrete 
Beams  and  Columns 

By  W.  NOBLE  TWELVETREES 
With  Labor-saving  Diagrams  and  Numerous  Illustrations. 
London, 1911. 

CIclh,  164  pp..  Ill;  lamo,  $1.00  tut 

Theauthorhasconfinedhisatten  chieflytothe  presenta- 
tion of  formula,  simple  working  ri.,  ,  and  labor-savmg  dia- 
grams, intended  to  faciliUte  the  work  of  designing  reinforced 
concrete  structures. 

The  treatment  throughout  is  applicable  to  all  rational  sys- 
tems of  construction  and  all  varieties  of  reinforcing  bars.  The 
work  is  a  thoroughly  practical  guide. 

Structural  Iron  and  Steel 

A  Text-hook  for  Architects,  Engineers,  BuUden  and  Science 
Students      ^^  ^  NOBLE  TWELVETREES 
London,  .900.  CMh,  ,66  pp.,  ,imc,$,.90«l 

In  this  elementary  treatise  the  author  presents  in  regular 
sequence  the  more  important  details  relative  to  uron  and  steel 
as  applied  to  structural  work. 


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